Streams/local cache to get around flaky wifi networking ?

Hi all,
I maxed out my internal drive so I started to put stuff on the (linux, samba) server. My htpc is hooked to the network using a wifi link. I achieve a sustained transfer rate of 2Mb/s when uploading from the server.
Playing either movies or music off the network is not really possible because my bandwidth is ok, but the reliability of the link is not. I can't listen to music for more than 15 minutes before a connection glitch happens.
There are workarounds:
- I can stream music with apache, over http. Players make use of a cache so the music never stops My player of choice (outside MP) is iTunes, I browse the collection just as if the files were on the local HD.
- I could stream my avi movies with vlc although I still have to figure what settings comply with WMP9.

Now my problem is to do this kind of things in MP:
- could it take a huge playlist (.m3u) and it would show the songs, artists, ... ? (0.0.0.13 doesn't seem to want to do anything with my test music playlist), or a collection of files, each one corresponding to a song ?
- could it be the same for a video ?

Or should I ditch SMB and use another networking protocol that would give me file-level access, and cope with the poor reliability of the network ?

Thanks in advance for your advice.