File transfer over SMB is extremely slow on Panther. I had this problems with Win XP as client but other Wins should have the same problem. I found this solution in http://discussions.info.apple.com:
RE: File transfer over SMB extremely slow
( msg # 6.: Posted Nov 17, 03 1:35 pm )
Apple shipped Panther with some extremely non-optimal kernel tcp defaults.
So the solution for slow NFS/SMB tranfers requires a bit of Terminal magic:
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.mssdflt=1460
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65535
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65535
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.newreno=1
(Settings courtesy of Chris Zubrzycki
With these kernel settings SMB transfer speed went from 50kB/s to 1.3MB/s and NFS transfer speed from 190kB/s to 1.9MB/s [read more]