samba - Jan 2004 - MSDev using samba drv = intermittent long delays

I am new to Unix and I still use MSDev as a security blanket. I point it
to a project on a samba share to edit my unix source files.
 
Intermittently, msdev hangs for 5sec to several minutes. It usually
comes back but occasionally I loose patience and kill it. 
 
I am tempted to compile the latest stable 3.x Samba release to replace
the 2.2.8a binaries that was included on the Solaris 9 x86 CD, but I
wonder if Sun included the earlier version for a reason or if maybe 3.x
was not available in time.
 
Can someone give me some advice on how to track down the reason for this
delay and an opinion whether moving to 3.x is a good idea on Solaris
x86?
 
Details:
 
Samba Server side:
Solaris 9 x86
Samba version: 2.2.8a (the binaries that are included in Solaris x86)
security=domain (used smbpassword to join the Solaris box to my Win2k AD
domain in legacy client mode)
using Swat to create shares with default parameters.
wired 10/100 NIC
 
Client Side:
WinXP Pro 
IBM Thinkpad T23
802.11b Wireless via DI-624 access point
MSDev .net 2k (not compiling, just using project files and editing
source, VSS integration)
Visual Source Safe (VSS) 6.0c
Exceed (the delay has happened when exceed is running and when its not)
 
Domain Controller:
Win2k Server
AD
DNS server
DHCP server
a file share hosts the VSS repository
 
--BobG