Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Tiger & network issues

One of my Macs has been having problems retreiving files from the Windows network. For reference, it is a 2004 G5 PowerMac running 10.4.11, all updates in place, and using 4GB RAM.

Sometimes(in the same log in session), when the user navigates to a network folder, it gives a message about an incorrect alias and she cannot see the network shares. Even if the folder was just open, when finder is used to navigate to the network folder, the user is asked for credentials and then is turned down with the alias message. This only occurs intermittently, and the only fix is to restart the machine.

The second problem is the download from network shares time. Files from sources outside the network come through quickly, but files from shared network folders take an inordinate amount of time. For example, a 100Kb file that normally takes a second to copy takes 30-40 seconds. A 4 Mb file takes nearly 4 minutes.

The workaround has been to put the files this user (a graphics artist) needs to use on our FTP server, where she can download the whole 47 Mb folder in just a few minutes. She should be able to get them just as fast or faster going directly though the internal network, however, but the files either take a really long time to download, or the Finder crashes midway through and has to be Force Quit.

The connection is 100Mbps, and all internet, network print, and other items using the same connection work fine. On any other Mac using the same network line and credentials, those items take less time to download than it takes me to say it.

My next step is to archive and install the OS, or just do a clean build on a new drive, but this user has (a) a lot of work to do and can't really take time for that, and (b) a lot of unique and strange fonts, software, and other little things that make replacing the machine a real chore.

Initially I looked at the network switch, the line running to the station, the network port on the Mac and have ruled out all such factors.

It feels like something in the OS is not right that affects all users on the machine, but I can't isolate what it might be.

Any thoughts on this would be helpful- thanks in advance.

This may be a silly suggestion, but have you tried simply restarting the machine with the Shift key held down (to go into safe mode), then restarting again? Safe boot flushes a lot of caches, including network caches, that might cause problems.

There are a lot of places to look for problems like you are describing. You're going to have to reduce things down a bit rather than trying single fixes in a complex setup. Without knowing a great deal about your setup it's hard to make specific recommendations. Some points to consider:

- network cables and routers/switches can cause elusive problems
- connecting using the browser can hook you up over afp OR smb or other things. try being explicit in your connections and see what works better
- different versions of OS X perform differently on AFP and SMB
- different architectures (PPC/Intel) also perform differently
- one bad network card or misconfigured (network) computer can cause elusive problems with random machines, regardless of where it's connected on your network
- system (corrupt/damaged os) problems are rarely at fault

The faster solution may simply be to establish a dedicated sharing computer and slowly build outward from there, connecting machines one at a time and testing them. It's admittedly easier to troubleshoot a system as you build it than to find a problem in an existing complex, non-optimal system. In the end, having a centralized dedicated fileserver will be a major win.

It may be something with the network (or the closest switch) after all. I built a PowerMac G4 to test the line, which initially worked flawlessly. However, after a couple days in place, it has developed the same poky behavior when accessing network files that the G5 has been having.

When I bring it to a network connection in another part of the building, it works fine. When I put it in the problem office, it works fine for a day or so and then develops the problem.

Why the effect takes a few days to kick in, I have no idea, but it only happens on lines attached to a particular switch, so we're looking there now.