Problems accessing SMB volumes on 10.4.7

[MDLarson]

We are setting up our new Kyocera Mita KM-2550 in the office and have the faxes and scans setup to be deposited on a publicly-shared folder on a Windows XP Pro workstation. Authentication is handled via a domain controller on a separate server.

Windows users can log in, view, move / rename files, delete and otherwise manage these folders without problems. On the Mac side, every step is met with problems.

We have 3 Macs running 10.3.X and my workstation is running 10.4.7. I'll just list some of the problems...

1) I can't log on using the Connect to Server interface. Typing in the IP address (10.0.0.104) results in the Connection Failed dialog as if the server was offline. If I try typing in "smb://10.0.0.104", I get a message telling me some data could not be read or written, error code -36.

2) Navigating through the Network folder interface is tedious, but it works... sometimes. After double clicking on the Windows workstation (which appears like an alias), I can usually select the shared folder, click OK and authenticate. When I already have the volume mounted and try opening it again from this interface, it fails and gives me an alias error telling me that the original item cannot be found.

3) On my 10.3 Macs, aliases made to a mounted volume would sometimes fail for no apparent reason. (It seems to be working properly on my 10.4 Mac).

4) On my 10.3 Macs, sometimes I would not be able to delete files when I should be able to. It would tell me that the file is in use, when I am fairly certain it was not. (Again, it seems to be working properly on my 10.4 Mac).

6) The folder contents do not update properly on both 10.3 and 10.4. As we receive faxes or scans, the items simply do not show up on the Macs. As files are renamed, sometimes the newly named file does not show up and the old file appears to be "half-deleted", where the icon is blank and if you click on the file, it disappears, only to appear later when you access the folder. Completely disconnecting the volume and re-connecting essentially "refreshes" the view to reflect reality.

7) Connecting to the volume from the Mac creates those freaking invisible files and folders. Comparing my 10.4 window to what I see from Windows, I see 3 extra items in Windows... Temporary Items (folder), ._Temporary Items (file) and .DS_Store (file). Granted, if settings are set to not show invisible files in Windows, it properly hides the two files. But why the hell do we have to deal with these ridiculous files?

I'm a big Mac fan, but issues like this are tempting me to recommend replacing our aging Macs (at this location) with Windows computers. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I just want things to work, with minimal fuss on the end-user's part.