smb vs ftp for NAS drive

English Network/Internet
#1

I have a buffalo linkstation NAS drive connected to my router.
I can access this drive via smb or via ftp.
Bot work fine and I have no complaints.

I have a question regarding speed of transfers though.

Using the ftp protocol in Dolphin I tend to get transfer speeds nearly twice that of using smb.
For example - transferring a .avi file from the NAS to my local computer on a wireless N router - ftp I get transfer speeds of approx 9mb. Using smb transfer speeds max out at approx 3mb.

Is this an expected behaviour?

Here is my smb.conf if any help

[global]
	workgroup = farcusnet
	netbios name = ThinkPad
	passdb backend = tdbsam
	name resolve order = bcast host lmhosts wins
	printing = cups
	printcap name = cups
	printcap cache time = 750
	cups options = raw
	map to guest = Bad User
	usershare allow guests = Yes
	usershare max shares = 100
	usershare owner only = false
	use client driver = yes
	include = /etc/samba/dhcp.conf
	wins support = Yes
	add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd  -c Machine -d /var/lib/nobody -s /bin/false %m$
	domain logons = No
	domain master = No
	security = user
	ldap suffix = 

[homes]
	comment = Home Directories
	valid users = %S, %D%w%S
	browseable = No
	read only = No
	inherit acls = Yes

# [profiles]
#	comment = Network Profiles Service
#	path = %H
#	read only = No
#	store dos attributes = No
#	create mask = 0600
#	directory mask = 0700

[users]
	comment = All users
	path = /home
	read only = No
	inherit acls = Yes
	veto files = /aquota.user/groups/shares/
[groups]
	comment = All groups
	path = /home/groups
	read only = No
	inherit acls = Yes
[printers]
	comment = All Printers
	path = /var/tmp
	printable = Yes
	create mask = 0600
	browseable = No
[print$]
	comment = Printer Drivers
	path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
	write list = @ntadmin root
	force group = ntadmin
	create mask = 0664
	directory mask = 0775

## Share disabled by YaST
# [netlogon]
#	comment = Network Logon Service
#	path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
#	write list = root
#2

So I just did a test on an all wired setup with 1 GB network and 10 GB data folder of files and I am getting around 25mb on everything (does vary some based on the file size). I have not tried wireless but I wonder about a wireless to wireless as opposed to a wireless to a wired NAS or just what the exact configuration might be there. I would do an all wired check to see if the wireless connection is the issue perhaps. On the smb side, I only map NTFS partitions and the smb portion was a Linux to Windows transfer while the NAS was a 1.5 TB Buffalo (Storestation I think it is called) to Linux transfer. I am using openSUSE 11.4 64 bit and current samba version.

Thank You,

#3

Is it possible to set up samba to use tcp for transfer of file ? Because if not I would not recommend it for NAS of any large files. I used samba over ipsec VPN for backup of virtual machines and 50% of the backups were broken. Once I switched to nfs over tcp everything is perfectly fine.

Best regards,
Greg

#4

Samba does use TCP. UDP is for name resolution by nmb.

#5

Ah so it must have been the poor VPNs fault because together with switching to NFS I also copied the files without ipsec and not over the public internet :slight_smile:

Best regards,
Greg