What's the Best Way to Secure an SMB Server Without Sacrificing Performance? or Why Is My SMB Server

SMB server sluggish? Start with the basics:

1. Network: Are you on gigabit? Check for duplex mismatches (`ethtool` on Linux, `netsh int ip show config` on Windows).
2. Protocol: SMBv1 is garbage. Switch to v3 and enable encryption if needed.
3. Hardware: RAID setup? HDDs? SSDs make a huge difference for small files.

For tools, try `smbstatus` (Linux) or `Get-SmbConnection` (Windows) to see active sessions.