I have a problem with samba that I can't figure out. It works fine normally... however.. if I reset my windows PC, then try and access files shared on the windows PC from my linux computer, samba runs EXTREMELY slow. The main thing I do this for is playing music with xmss (music stored on windows pc), but I use it for a number of other things as well.

Restarting samba doesn't fix the problem... the only thing that does fix it that I've found, is completely rebooting the linux computer.

Am running debian (2.6.10 kernel). Here's the /etc/samba/smb.conf

#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = Trek

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = Ack (Samba %v)

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
dns proxy = no

#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 1000

# We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything
# should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log
# through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.
syslog = 0

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d


####### Authentication #######

# "security = user" is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account
# in this server for every user accessing the server. See
# /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/ServerType.html in the samba-doc
# package for details.
security = user

# You may wish to use password encryption. See the section on
# 'encrypt passwords' in the smb.conf(5) manpage before enabling.
encrypt passwords = true


# If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what
# password database type you are using.
passdb backend = tdbsam guest
obey pam restrictions = yes
invalid users = root

# For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following
# parameters must be set (thanks to Augustin Luton <aluton@hybrigenics.fr> for
# sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Potato).
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n .


######## File sharing ########

# Name mangling options
; preserve case = yes
; short preserve case = yes


############ Misc ############

# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration
# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name
# of the machine that is connecting
; include = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See smb.conf(5) and /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/speed.html
# for details
# You may want to add the following on a Linux system:
#SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
#socket options = TCP_NODELAY
socket options = TCP_NODELAY,SO_KEEPALIVE

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

wins support = no
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no

# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change next
# parameter to 'yes' if you want to be able to write to them.
writable = no

# File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
create mask = 0700

# Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
directory mask = 0700

#
[shared_www]
path = /c/www
valid users = luke
public = no
writable = yes
create mask = 0765

[furc]
path = /links/furc
valid users = luke
public = no
writable = yes
create mask = 0765

-----------------------

... and the lines in /etc/fstab
//neato/ear /neato/ear smbfs uid=luke,username=Luke,password=******** 0 0
//neato/EQLogs /neato/EQLogs smbfs uid=luke,username=Luke,password=******** 0 0

-----------------------

Any ideas what could be going on.. or how to fix it?

Samba Version?
Network type your using?
And does it start working better if you just restart samba itself instead of rebooting the whole machine? You should always try to avoid rebooting a Linux server of any kind if its just one service giving difficulties.
What are the specs of the Linux server? Do you have another windows machine you can test this from, reboot and see if the same thing occurs?

Beleive samba version is 3.0.10-1

They're connected through a linksys router.. over 100Mbps ethernet.

Just restarting samba doesn't not fix the problem ( /etc/init.d/samba restart ). Typeing reboot and letting the system fully reboot does fix it.

Linux comp is an old p3 550 with 256MB of RAM. I used to run win98 on the computer, and it is still on there and I can boot to it if I need to. Back when I used win98 on the linux computer and rebooted the other windows machine, there was never any speed issues between them. Don't have a 3rd pc to test things with though.

Another different way to recreate the problem most of the time (doesn't always work), is to just unplug the network cable from either of the computers.

try typing

smbd stop

smbd start this doesnt restart it at actualy stops it first and should have the same effect as if you restarted the linux box

and i could have swarn i replayed to this exact thread yesterday must be mistaken

smbd stop
smbd start
..just tried that... same effect as using the normal samba restart.. doesn't fix the insane connection lag.

Restarting linux system still fixed it though. It's strange.

Net card in linux comp is a cheap thing.. maybee it's related to that? Is there a way to "turn off" the card then "turn it back on" without restarting?