What can I do to stop high network usage when a Samba share is mounted?

Question

Ok, so i've done a lot of googling on this, but i've not really found any conclusive answers.
Basically, when I mount a samba share from another machine, Lion goes crazy. I can see from iStat menus that network (wireless) usage varies wildly from 300KB/s, right up to 6/7 MB/s, but my cpu usage doesn't spike at all. When this is happening the laptop is almost unusable, clicking something can take 30 seconds for a response. I'm presuming that this is something to do with Spotlight trying to index the share, but as it's several terabytes in size, it never completes. I've left the laptop on overnight in the hope that whatever process is causing this would finish, but to no avail. I've also placed the share in the Privacy tab in Spotlight's preferences, and used mdutil -i to stop it accessing the volume, but with no luck.
Can anyone help? It's driving me nuts and it means i can't access my files without having to ftp in instead.
I'm running 10.7.3

Answer 1

Unfortunately, your description of the problem and the placement of both your main and AirPort Express routers does lend itself to believe the problem is most likely Wi-Fi interference. If it isn't the microwave or portable phones, it could be obstacles like walls between the routers that may be preventing the stream from consistently reaching the Express.
In your configuration, the stream will first travel to the main router, and then, from the main router to the AirPort Express. If, for example, you started the stream in the same room as the Express, that stream would have to travel across several rooms at least twice.