Speed up file tranfer between MAC OS X and Linux Samba Server

After scratching my head few weeks, tweaking a lot smb.conf on my linux box, I found a Finder workaround, based on turning off display of server in sidebar.

Symptom: Slow file transfer over the network, between a MAC OS X Lion machine and a Linux machine (archlinux, currnet version). Also slow transfer between MAC and a PC based file server. How slow, let say finder reports about 1 hour for a CD size .iso file.

How to do it:

  1. Open Finder Preferences
  2. On Sidebar tab, disable Connected Servers
  3. On General tab, check Connected Servers

As a result, the mounted volume will appear on the desktop instead of sidebar.

In my case, this Finder workaround helped me to increase the speed more than 20x.

Please let me know if this has improved the share browsing and the file transfer speed in your case.Thanks.