One of the things I found was that copying a large amount of data
from the server volume to the Mac was significantly faster using
SMB than using AFP. For a 500MB folder with 5 big files, AFP was
getting around 36 Mbps, whereas SMB was getting around 50 Mbps.
--- I found just the opposite. I just did a quick unscientific
experiment. On my desktop mac (10.4.11 late G5 tower, gigabit
ethernet) I mounted the same server volume twice. The AFP mount
was specified as "afp://servername" and the SMB mount as "SMB://
servername". Then I did a finder drag of a 1GB file to each
server volume. The server is the same , just different protocols
(dual G4 Xserve, 10.4.11 on gigabit ether with an Xraid for the
share).
The transfer times for AFP were just slightly, though consistently,
faster. 21 seconds for AFP and 25 seconds for SMB , for a 1GB
audio file.
And trying it for multiple small files will give you yet different
results. As will multiple large files. As will mixed files. And so
on...
to pile on some more anecdotal evidence..
Copying a 2.46 GB dmg just now (Gigabit Ethernet connection to a G4
with PATA drives running 10.4.9 Server, from a MBP running 10.5.2)
took 50 seconds over AFP,
and via smb copying the same file took 2mins 40 sec.
