Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

JB72 · May 20, 2003, 12:21 AM

Currently, I run both AFP and Samba on my local network for filesharing. I'm thinking I'd like to go 100% Samba just to cut down on the amount of protocols I'm running, and make things simpler. What might be the pros and cons of Samba vs. AFP, in general?

t i a

PS - Speed is important here (media.)

JB72 · May 25, 2003, 08:39 PM

Uh... not as much interest in this as I might have anticipated.

Camelot · May 26, 2003, 02:35 AM

Originally posted by JB72:
Uh... not as much interest in this as I might have anticipated.

Personally, I don't think it makes enough difference to form an opinion either way.

AFP tends to perform better for Mac clients, but many Windows clients don't have that option, necessitating Samba, but Mac OS X-based Macs can talk Samba fine, and the performance difference isn't likely to be a problem on a local network.

Hozie · May 26, 2003, 05:08 AM

I'd say, if you ever plan on expanding your computer base with windows clients, then go for Samba. Otherwise, it's just needless headaches compared to AFP. It's not difficult, though, so whichever you choose, it should work...

gatorparrots · May 26, 2003, 07:49 AM

Originally posted by JB72:
PS - Speed is important here (media.)

Neither protocol is very efficient, so neither meets your critical objective of speed. FTP would be much more effecient for large media file transfers (as long as the files are not resource-fork dependent). You could also consider timing direct IM transfer via iChat or Yahoo or something as well to see if that is a feasible alternative.

Hozie · May 26, 2003, 08:28 AM

Originally posted by gatorparrots:
Neither protocol is very efficient, so neither meets your critical objective of speed. FTP would be much more effecient for large media file transfers (as long as the files are not resource-fork dependent). You could also consider timing direct IM transfer via iChat or Yahoo or something as well to see if that is a feasible alternative.

Nah, the IM thing (Yahoo at least) is limited to 700-800MB files, so irt won't do you any good for VIDEO_TS folders and the like. FTP should work fine, but it's a pian in the b*tt compaired to SMB and AFP, if you ask me. If you really want to get fast speeds over short (physical) distances, I'd recommend using the IP over FireWire prview from Apple. Works fast over TCP/IP and operates with both OS X and XP/Me flawlessly...