samba - Jun 2013 - Windows 7 access to Samba server: Strange performance/delay problems while opening share

Hello list!

I have strange performance issue with an single Windows 7 client in a
simple network setup with one samba server, and various windows clients
(Win XP, Windows 7).

All clients can open shares with explorer, without any delay (the share
contents are listed directly).
But one client, a lenovo Windows 7 Laptop has strange problems opening
these same shares. The time from opening a share, until the share is
listed, varies betwenn (seldom) direct response, and in most cases
delays between 3 and 20 seconds, in seldom extrem cases 1-2 minutes.

Because this is the only Windows 7 client with this kind of problems, i
reinstalled the machine from scratch (with the lenovo version of windows
7 from the hidden partition), hoping this problem was caused by any kind
of windows weiredness (the windows 7 installation was one or two years old).

The only change was, there were no more delays in listing shares, longer
than 20 seconds, so the core problem still exists.

What possibilities do I have, to solve this problem?


My next step was, to capture the network traffic this client does, while
opening an specific share. I captured also the traffic caused by two
other windows 7 clients, which do not have any delay issues while
opening the same share. My knowledge about samba network packages is far
to low, to be able to find the problem.

In my desparation now, I joined this list, hoping there is anybody, who
can give me a hint to the right direction, to solve this problem.


Thanks,
Ralf

> Hello list!
>
> I have strange performance issue with an single Windows 7 client in a
> simple network setup with one samba server, and various windows clients
> (Win XP, Windows 7).
>
> All clients can open shares with explorer, without any delay (the share
> contents are listed directly).
> But one client, a lenovo Windows 7 Laptop has strange problems opening
> these same shares. The time from opening a share, until the share is
> listed, varies betwenn (seldom) direct response, and in most cases
> delays between 3 and 20 seconds, in seldom extrem cases 1-2 minutes.
>
> Because this is the only Windows 7 client with this kind of problems, i
> reinstalled the machine from scratch (with the lenovo version of windows
> 7 from the hidden partition), hoping this problem was caused by any kind
> of windows weiredness (the windows 7 installation was one or two years
> old).
>
> The only change was, there were no more delays in listing shares, longer
> than 20 seconds, so the core problem still exists.
>
> What possibilities do I have, to solve this problem?
>
>
> My next step was, to capture the network traffic this client does, while
> opening an specific share. I captured also the traffic caused by two
> other windows 7 clients, which do not have any delay issues while
> opening the same share. My knowledge about samba network packages is far
> to low, to be able to find the problem.
>
> In my desparation now, I joined this list, hoping there is anybody, who
> can give me a hint to the right direction, to solve this problem.
>
>
I had a similar issue and it happened to be that my laptop network card
didn't work well with my switch (I tested in several ports of that network
switch and with other computers there were no problems with these ports).
So I plugged this laptop to another switch in my network and then it
worked!

Best regards,
Felix.