Hi,
I have network drive which connected to my wireless router via usual LAN cable. I mount this network drive using Samba to my Kubuntu laptop filesystem.
When I play music (MP3, Flac) from that drive, it sometimes hiccups - music stops for few seconds and then resumes.
I usually use VLC, but MPlayer and Audacious have same results.
I tried to increase buffer in my VLC -> ALSA settings. I increased it from default 300 to 5000ms, still same result.
I have very similar issue on same laptop when booted to WinXP. The only player which does not have hiccups in XP is KMPlayer. But it does not want to work in Kubuntu at all.
Any suggestions?

It sounds like you want to increase the file cache in the media player, not the ALSA audio buffer.

I haven't used VLC in quite some time, but as I recall there should be an "Input/Codecs" section in the configuration that will allow you to adjust both the cache for local files and the SMB cache for files played over the network. Bump them both up and see if there is any change.

In mplayer, try adding -cache 5000 to your command line - at least when reading from audio cds it works pretty well.

VLC menu Tools - Preferences - Show Settings: All - Input/Codecs - Access modules - File
I increased "cashing value" to 3000 ms plus "extra network cashing value" to 9000 ms.
Hiccups still occur, but to be honest much less.
I won't believe that 12000 ms (effectively 12 s) is not enough for buffer!
Any other thoughts?