I have a 10-Base2 (BNC) network with a Pentium 233 NetBSD machine, and two
P3-500 mhz machines running Microsoft windows ME and 2000.  Windows file
sharing is fast between the two, copying files at about 600-800KB/sec.

FTP from the NetBSD is also fast.

Samba copying files from the netbsd machine to windows ME or 2000 via
windows explorer is very very slow, about 64KB/sec.

The throughput numbers are reported by windows ME's system monitor,
monitoring "Microsoft Network Client Bytes read/second"

I then started to tune samba, and somewhere said to watch traffic with the
command:

$ tcpdump -i ep0 | grep '^[0-9]'

While I'm watching (via ssh), all the tcpdump stuff scrolls by, but my samba
throughput is good, just as good as above, 600-800KB/sec.

When I quit tcpdump, everything slows back down again.

I figured out that if I do:

$ tcpdump -i ep0 | grep '^[0-9]' > /dev/null
(or any file)

that samba is still slow.

If I do:

$ cd / ; ls -lR

a lot of stuff scrolls by on the screen, and samba is fast.

If I do an FTP while attempting to copy a big file with samba, BOTH are slow
(60 - 90 KB/sec).  FTP works fine by itself.

Can someone tell me what's wrong with my TCP or samba?

Thanks...