Leopard Clients Take 10 Minutes to Connect to Tiger 10.4.11 Server

Question

I have a single Tiger server OS X 10.4.11, on a LAN with 5 Tiger Clients and 2 Leopard clients, all with up-to-date patches.
My problem is, that ALL of the Tiger clients can access any of the server shares almost instantaneously, but when I try to connect a Leopard client the the server, it initially takes a minimum of 10 minutes! If I just click on the server <as displayed on the Finder SHARED tab>, the connection eventually fails. However, if I click on the "Connect as" button, after about 10 minutes, I get the user/password login, and the Leopard client connects immediately, and all the data on all the share points are accessible.
But, if I don't actually mount a share point (i.e. see a the Network drive icon on the desktop), and use finder column mode to navigate through the shares, if I click on a local drive in the same finder window, I have to go through the whole 10 minute wait again before I see the user/password login.
So my question:
Why is it taking a minimum of 10 minutes for the Leopard clients to connect, where as the Tiger clients connect immediately?
So, if anyone can help me trouble shoot or resolve the server settings so that the Leo clients can connect as quickly as the Tiger clients, I would be extremely grateful.
BTW - I followed the setup instructions precisely as per the Linda.com *+Mac OS X Server v10.4 Tiger Essential Training+* CD.
TIA
Gary
All the shares are setup as:
General:
Share this item and its contents.
Access:
Owner=Root (Read & Write);
Group=Staff (Read & Write);
Everyone (Read Only);
No ACL
Protocols:
Apple File Settings:
Share this item using AFP;
Allow AFP guest access;
Custom Name=<unique name>;
Default permissions for new files and folders=Use standard POSIX behavior
Windows File Settings:
Share this item using SMB
Allow SMB guest access
Enable strict locking
Default permissions for new files and folders:
Assign as follows: Owner=Read & Write; Group=Read & Write; Everyone=Read Only
FTP Settings
Share this item using FTP
Allow FTP guest access
Common FTP name: <same unique name>
Network Mount
Where: LDAPv3.127.0.0.1 (locked)
AFP is setup as follows:
General:
Enable Bonjour registration
Access:
Authentication=Standard
Enable Secure connections
Client & Guest connections=Unlimited
Logging:
(Everything); Archive every 7 days
Idle Users: (nothing checked
All staff members are defined as part of the "staff" group.

Answer 1

Windows File Settings:
Share this item using SMB
Allow SMB guest access
Enable strict locking
Default permissions for new files and folders:
Do you have any Windows clients on your network? If not turn OFF the SMB server and change the settings here so there is no SMB sharing.
FTP Settings
Share this item using FTP
Allow FTP guest access
Common FTP name: <same unique name>
Do your users access this sharepoint with FTP from inside your network? If not, stop the FTP server and change the settings to not share this via FTP.
General:
Enable Bonjour registration
Turn this off for all sharepoints. If you have no Bonjour-only printers -like some of those POS HP color Laserjet 26xx or 36xx series- enter this in Terminal.app or through the 'Send UNIX command...' in ARD to all of your Leopard clients:
launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist
user should be root if sent from ARD, prepend 'sudo' (without quotes) if in Terminal.app or if you're using an admin username from ARD. This turns off Bonjour.
Also, in WGM, look at each individual user account and see if the 'Primary Group ID' is listed in the 'Other Groups' list. If it's not, click the '+' sign and drag the user's primary group into the 'Other Groups' list and then save. You can 'shift-click' and select groups of users and add the group to them all at once if they are all in the same groups.
Access:
Authentication=Standard
Change the access to 'Any Method'. If your clients are all bound to the OD master and the sharepoints are listed in the directory (meaning Kerberos SSO works for all clients and users), the clients will try Kerberos first and anything else -like DHX authentication- if that fails. Also, if you are managing your clients with MCX you should have those shares mounting before log-in -meaning at startup- using guest access or at login with the username/pass.