Finder crashes upon AT/AFP file listing

[abacus]

I use my desktop as a fileserver for my laptop, serving up a wide variety of filetypes from psds, docs and html files. Both systems run 10.4.11. The desktop is a Dual G5 1.8 with 2GB ram. The laptop is a 700mhz G3 with 640mb ram. The laptop is connected wirelessly through a router (Linksys WRT54GS) connected via ethernet to the desktop. I use Intego's Netbarrier X5 (10.5.2) on both boxes

When I open a window to list files (both from the Finder and the Open dialog) from a network mounted volume, it either hangs (spinning beachball) or hard freezes the laptop, at least 50% of the time. The desktop appears to be uneffected. I don't see anything in the logs about the crashes.

I cannot replicate the problem consistently but it happens more times than not. It seems the problem just started to happen within the last couple of months.