I am running Gentoo on my server and Samba 2.2.8a. Recently I changed kernel versions from linux-2.4.19-gentoo-r10 to linux-2.4.20-wolk4.0s. Now I have a performance issue with Samba. Many of you will probably say, “Move to vanilla sources!” Well, I tried that and it didn't work. I have a 100MB LAN and two computers (Linux and Windows 2000). The Linux server shares directories with DivX files, the client (Windows 2000) plays them via LAN. Before, when I was running the 2.4.19 kernel, everything was fine, but now movies freeze and stop. I tried moving files between the server and Windows, and it is terribly slow.

Grab the mii-tool and check the duplex settings on the NIC. My guess is that it is a link layer issue, not an application layer problem. Also run ifconfig and verify that the framing error, collisions, and so on, look normal for ethernet.