Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Network weirdness

I was not sure where to post this, but here goes . . .

The situation - a small network. One machine running Tiger acting as a file-sharing server (no macosx server software, just standard 10.4.x). Another brand new snow leopard MacBook Pro.

There is a folder in the root directory of the "server", and a file inside that folder that the user of the client MBP needs to access. We'll call them MYFOLDER and MYFILE.

On the server machine we can see 35 items in directly within the hard disk, including MYFOLDER.

On the client machine, I log into the server machine as the main (and only) user of the server machine, and view the root directory. The window shows 34 items. MYFOLDER is not there.

"Right", I think. Perhaps I am somehow looking at the wrong folder. So I decide to use the client machine to create a new folder called TEST123 in the server machine's hard disk window, so I can check that it appears when I look on the server itself. I do so, and immediately TEST123 appears in the window on the client machine, as does the missing MYFOLDER!

When I delete the TEST123 folder, MYFOLDER disappears from view again.

These are all effects seen only on the client machine. On The server machine, the "missing" folder is there all the time.

Any ideas?

Have you considered using Terminal to rule out the possibility that the weirdness is GUI-related? Something like

ls -a /Volumes/name_of_server_volume/

from the client machine, when MYFOLDER is missing? (I'm thinking there may be a .DS_Store issue affecting the display of MYFOLDER's contents, particularly since the creation and deletion of the TEST123 folder toggles the visibility of MYFOLDER.)

Thanks dk. I'll give it a try next time I'm there.

consider also possible directory damage, different APIs (finder vs filesharing) may be using different methods to get file lists, producing different results. Run disk utility.

Are you sharing files using Mac file sharing or Windows file sharing? I seem to recall reading some time ago about some weirdnesses in Windows (SMB file sharing and getting directory listings of folders with large numbers of files or folders which had certain characters in their names that aren't allowed by Windows, but it's been long enough ago that the details are fuzzy in my head.

Just using Apple file sharing, no smb. But thanks anyway.