Performance of shared folders?

[jsqrdgsf]

I'm running Windows XP as a guest on Ubuntu 9.04 as host. I'm trying to access files on the host system using "Shared folders". It works, but on big files (photos) seems unusably slow. Performance is somewhat better using Samba/CIFS, but still nothing to write home about, and still *way* slower than the virtual disk.

My question is about expectations. I'm a relative newbie to VirtualBox and this is the first time I've needed/wanted to use shared folders to access files on the host system. How much of a slowdown in access time should I expect when using Shared Folders -- or should I be looking for other possible causes for the slow performance I'm seeing?

Thanks in advance for comments/suggestions.

-- Jon G

[vbox4me2]

Its usually the virtual lan adapter chosen, try the other ones, Bridge mode is the fastest way for samba = near to real speed.