SMB super slow within LAN between MAC and PC

I have a windows desktop which stores all my movies, songs and pictures.

I have a mac laptop which I would like to access these files.

I don't want to utilize the FTP or SCP protocol because I don't want them to be downloaded to my mac. I want to access them as if they are a network mounted disk.

So I tried using the native SMB protocol (available in Finder -> Go -> Connect to server). I tried dragging a file and dropping it onto my MAC's desktop. Surprisingly, I am only able to transfer at a very slow rate of about 1mb/s.

Assuming network connectivity is not a problem, has anyone experienced incredible slowness with SMB?

Are there alternative protocols for me to use in this case between PC and MAC?

asdcasdc

Posted 2013-11-05T09:06:27.380

Reputation: 21

Why not use SFTP? It uses port 22 (SSH) which is regarded as a safe means for file transfer. – jmreicha – 2013-11-05T21:56:37.460

@jmreicha You cannot stream videos with SFTP. – Jonathan Komar – 2014-01-07T19:23:51.733

Answers

In Mavericks, try using a cifs:// connection rather than SMB. The new SMB2 implementation has a bug.

Chris Thompson

Posted 2013-11-05T09:06:27.380

Reputation: 4 765

+1 this can be marked as an answer. Thank you very much sir, you saved my nerves.. – piggy – 2014-08-24T03:52:22.570

Holy crap is that better. Like entirely resolves what I've been starting to resent OS X over. Effin epic. Thank you so much! – James T Snell – 2016-02-05T17:14:17.907

I was having trouble with SMB in Mavericks as well, and I eventually decided to update my windows 8 pcs wifi driver, and it fixed both the terrible speed and dropping connection issues, you should look into that.

MarcusJ

Posted 2013-11-05T09:06:27.380

Reputation: 1 947

If you just want to see a movie or something, try streaming it with VLC:

https://wiki.videolan.org/Vlc_MacOS_File/#Transfers_tab

Alternatively, if you have apache installed, simply serve the folder. Then you can use the ip and address to play it in VLC. This way you are not downloading anything. You can probably also see the movie through the browser.

codehitman

Posted 2013-11-05T09:06:27.380

Reputation: 171