extremely slow writing/copying to file server (SMB)

[vexingv]

i essentially have a headless windows xp machine with nothing hooked up to it set up as a file server using a bunch of drives and smb/shared folders. i usually keep the file server in S3 sleep and use WOL when i need to access it. my other computer runs windows xp as well. i've noticed that copying files to the file server takes forever. for example, a 700 mb video is estimated to complete in 30-50 minutes. this slow copying occurs only if the file server has just woken from S3 sleep. if i try to copy files if the server has not been S3 slept or if i did a fresh reboot, copying a 700 mb to the server would take less than 2 minutes.

why is this so slow only after waking from s3 sleep?
how can i fix it?

specs:
File SERVER: AthlonXP 1700+ / 768 mb ram / epox 8rda+ nforce2 mobo / 4 IDE drives on PCI-ATA card / ati radeon 9500P
WORKSTATION: A64 3400+ / 2GB ram / ECS nforce 4 mobo / SATA hard drive / 7600 gt
-both use the onboard lan on the mobo and have the latest drivers available from nvidia.
-router: buffalo whr-g54s w/ tomato firmware 1.07

things i've tried:
-both NIC are set to full auto duplex settings (both adapters are operating at 100 mb)
-copy to other shared folders that are on drives not on the PCI-ATA card (thinking that it might be a pci card issue)

also, copying files from the file server doesn't seem to be an issue and is fast (few minutes to transfer 700mb file).

in conclusion, file transfer to the server are slow if the server had been put to sleep previously.
eg:
-S3 sleep server, try to transfer 700 mb file = eternally slow copying
-fresh reboot server, try to transfer 700 mb file = a few minutes tops

 

[vexingv]

so i decided to bring my powerbook into the fray and see if it experienced the same problems writing to the server...same exact thing. writing to the server takes forever; that 700 mb is estimated to complete in 2 hours!! yet getting a comparably sized file from the server and writing to the powerbook only takes 2 minutes.

there are no speed issues when copying files back and forth between the powerbook and the client computer.

whats going on?

 

[vexingv]

just checked to see how write speeds on the file server itself (copying files from 1 drive to another locally) and the speeds were good (~20 secs to copy 700 mb file from drive to drive). so this definitely seems like a networking issue on the file server's end.

 

[spidey07]

What are the speed/duplex settings on your network card and the switch?

Sounds like a duplex mismatch when it wakes. Try updating NIC driver.

 

[vexingv]

afaik i have the latest ethernet drivers, which are from the last nforce2 5.10 from nvidia back in 2004. the duplex setting on the server and the windows client were both set to auto negotiate. i had previously forced both to operate in full 100 duplex and that didnt seem to make it better. but i just forced only the fileserver to full 100 duplex and left the client to auto and now writing to the server is much faster....strange, but it worked. thanks spidey!