Choosing SMB2, NT1, AIO, ...

[ku-gew]

Hello,
there are different options for the SMB/CIFS shares, but I would like the opinion of someone more experienced of me concerning the two choices:
- SMB2, no AIO;
- NT1 with AIO.

Which one is optimal when? I think, if there is a Win XP machine, the second one is the only choice. But what about SMB2 without AIO vs NT1 with AIO in networks with only Win Vista/7/8 machines?

Thank you.

[ChriZathens]

I personally have experienced instability in the past with smb2 (sometimes loosing connection and also deleted files appearing again as 0 byte files).So I switched to nt1 and no issues since...
P.S.: All my win computers were win7.
P.P.S.: Since then n4f samba is newer version, so stability now is maybe restored. But even with NT1 my speeds using samba when transferring files from my NAS to windows and vice versa, is about 90MB/s so I am happy as is...

[LA70]

For me(and my hardware) NT1/no AIO is "optimal", you'll just have to try the different options and see what works best for you.

[raulfg3]

NT1+AIO for me.

[apollo567]

NT1+AIO for me.

since I changed my Master System from Windows XP to Win7 I suddenly have Network speed from 90-110 MB/s
I still use NT1 & AIO

[ku-gew]

I briefly tested the Athlon 64 X2 2 GB ram, 100 Mbps Ethernet, NT1+AIO and I get write speeds of 85-97 Mbps depending on the OS and computer in use (the highest values, 95-97 Mbps with Win7+Pentium D 805). I also tried to copy back some files (all of them over 200 MB) from it to local HD using Win XP+Pentium Dual E2140 + unnamed mobo and I got at most 40 Mbps per file transfer. If I start multiple file transfers, I can saturate again the ethernet connection (90 Mbps). Is this behavior something normal? I don't think so... 40 Mbps is really bad.
Unfortunately I don't have access to that Win XP computer for the next months, but I can ask the user to perform simple tests.