I have a significant problem that I can’t fix but has to be dealt with. My new client is having me connect to a Windows server via Samba to do my work. Okay, whatever. Unfortunately, the last couple of days has been really, really painful. I can’t browse the Samba drive using the Finder. It gives me the spinning beach ball of death whenever a folder on the Samba drive is front. I can browse the volume perfectly using the Terminal or even the choose/save file dialog box in applications. The Finder just completely whacks out. Oddly, I can open a different window (say, open ~ in Terminal) and the Finder will be back to being zippy while that window is frontmost. When I change back to a window showing a directory on the Samba drive, I’m back to being bogged down.

Does anyone know the solution? Is this fixable?

[Update] I’ve found that PathFinder works reliably well with the Samba share. I guess I’ll use it until I find a better solution.

[Update 2] Leap also works well with Samba shares. As far as I know, it doesn’t mount them like PathFinder and Finder can, but if it’s mounted, you can browse it. Looks nice, too.