Samba (SMB) configuration to avoid slow Windows reconnects

Hi all, I have been using OSX 10.3 as a replacement for NT file servers in some small businesses. However, some of my users experience slow file access to OSX Windows share points after some undefined number of minutes of idle time (usually more than 10 min). From looking at the Samba service man pages, I see that non-Apple implementations (ie, Debian Linux, etc.) include a "deadtime" parameter under "global" settings. Has anyone tried this? Apple's /etc/smb.conf does NOT have the "deadtime" parameter, so I'm hesitant to try (the servers are very remote). Please send advice to irvin@macoutfitters.com as well as by post at afp548. blake/