Forcing afp over smb for default file mount

Question

Looks like Leopard is defaulting to using smb, to mount network shares -- even IF the machine is a Mac! Here is my setup:
- iMac 2.8Ghz as "client" (Leopard)
- Mac Mini C2D as "server" (Tiger)
- Both connected to the same Netgear GigE switch, both showing GigE as connection speed.
On my client, I see the shares on the server and mount them by entering my password. Copying files, via smb, isn't that fast (~20MB/sec). Once I use Apple-K to force an afp mount, the file transfer is ~50MB/sec.
Is there any method to force Leopard's Finder to default afp for a Mac to Mac connection? Seems very weird that the default is smb when the machine is 100% Apple/OSX.

Answer 1

Alrite, have a little more testing done with this setup. As R-C-R has kindly pointed out, I should break it down one at a time. Here is what I did:
- Mount the share, via the Leopard sidebar
- Mount the share, via Command-K
Mounting via the sidebar shows this via bash:
imac:/ vash$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
fdesc on /dev (fdesc, union)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, automounted)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted)
/dev/disk0s3 on /Volumes/Untitled (ntfs, local, read-only, noowners)
afp_393tmw0008OL0000oM0000VU-1.2e000007 on /Volumes/vash (afpfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by vash)
imac:/ vash$
YES! It is mount via afp. My immediate assumption was wrong. Let's benchmark copying 2.78gigs from the mini to the imac: max of 32MB/sec. Why that speed? I haven't a clue, but that's the current speed using the Leopard sidebar to mount.
Disconnect all of it and mount via Command-K. Here is the cli output:
imac:/ vash$ mount
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local)
fdesc on /dev (fdesc, union)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, automounted)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted)
/dev/disk0s3 on /Volumes/Untitled (ntfs, local, read-only, noowners)
afp_393tmw0008OL0000oM0000VU-1.2e000009 on /Volumes/vash (afpfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by vash)
imac:/ vash$
Same 2.78GB copy maxed out at 78MB/sec.
My first conclusion of smb vs. afp is dead wrong. Sidebar vs. Command-K mounting is definitely different.