I have been following this thread and have some questions.

If  you are being delayed should you then look at adding more buffers and
if you are waiting for full buffers should you then look at smaller
buffers?

Is waiting for full buffers a problem other than you might not be streaming
your tape drive.  This just means that you tape drive is keeping up with
the network  or disk.   However, if you are being delayed then the tape
drives are the slow part of the backup.

Am I on track here?  If so it seems I should worry a lot more about being
delayed than waiting for a full buffer as far as number and size of
buffers.

Also in looking at my  bptm log I am seeing about 6000 kb/sec on completion
of a backup or a duplication.  I am running STC 9840 tape drives is this
about what I should expect?

Any clarification on these question will be appreciated