Subject: Slowing down while editing document on the client

From: Palotas Peter <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 11:10:32 +0200

We use the latest stable version of netatalk on a (Debian) Linux Server
2.2.19.

As we started to use netatalk we had two problems:

1. The connection establishment took about 30 secounds. The chooser
message was Connection establishment... Switchhing back to appletalk...
then came the login window. Finaly I set the notcp option and now its
works fine.

2. AfterI opened a document from the server while editind it or just
scrolling it my Mac looks like it freeze. But not, just the two arrows
indicate on the top left corner the network trafic with the netatalk
server and after 5-10 secound I can continue ma work.

To find the answare for my 2nd problem is very serius, but I think TCP
server could be faster and the answare form my 1st problem could solves
my 2nd problem as well.

As I tried to find this problems I found the followings:

The noadouble option my servers appears very-very slow. I tried it
because we use samba as well and PC users confused the .AppleDouble
folders. I edited the AppleVolumes.system file as well and put the
extensin/creatop pair for MS Word and MS Excel documents as well but the
2nd problem still remainig.

Any advice could help me! Thanks!

Peter

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From: [email-masked] (Anatol Ulrich)
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 11:47:09 +0200

Peter,

>folders. 
don´t use noadouble; hide the .AppleDouble folders in samba with the 
parameter    veto files

-anatol

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From: Palotas Peter <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 12:38:45 +0200

Anatol,

Currently I don't use noadouble, I only have the notcp options.

Peter

>Anatol Ulrich ([email-masked]):

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From: "Mikkel C. Simonsen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 12:59:25 +0100

> then came the login window. Finaly I set the notcp option and now its

That happens with "real" AppleShareIP servers as well. One cause can be
that the Mac and the server are not on the same network (the Macs on
192.168.1.x and the server on 192.168.2.x etc.). Have you checked the
TCP/IP configuration of the Macs?

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

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From: Jason Quigley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 00:52:30 +0200

Just a couple of quick questions...

You complained about tcp being slow.

o What sort of DNS setup have you got?
o Are these machines connected to the internet?
o How?
o What have you got in your hosts files (macs and server)?

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From: Palotas Peter <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 13:49:21 +0200

Jason,

>Jason Quigley ([email-masked]):

>You complained about tcp being slow.

Yes. We have a LAN which connets to the Internet via Cisco 706 ISDN modem.

>o What sort of DNS setup have you got?

We don't have dns server in the LAN. We use our Internet provider's NSs
if it is needed. These are set in the clients and the server as well.

>o Are these machines connected to the internet?

Yes. See below.

>o What have you got in your hosts files (macs and server)?

On macs it is empty. I will chech the server and inform you!

Peter

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From: Jason Quigley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 00:53:21 +0200

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From: Jason Quigley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 18:19:30 +0200

Okay, this looks like you are connecting by selecting the server name in the
chooser. The system is trying to do an DNS lookup for the server name/domain
as it will try to see if the server talks ASIP before reverting to ASAT.
Your provider does not have this information, so the DNS request is timing
out. BTW - this is dialing your provider over the ISDN connection.

What you need to do is connect directly via the IP address from the chooser
or set up your own DNS server (pain in the butt) or create entries in your
hosts files on the Macs.

If you connect using the IP address, you can simply save a bookmark for the
server.

I think there is another way of sorting out this problem, but for the moment
it escapes me. Perhaps some helpful soul on the list can remember it.

Cheers,
Jason.

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From: "Mikkel C. Simonsen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 18:44:44 +0100

> as it will try to see if the server talks ASIP before reverting to ASAT.

Are you sure about that? I have a test server running (Netatalk 1.5 pre
6 on FreeBSD). It isn't in the hostfile, and its not in the DNS, but the
macs connect to it via TCP/IP when we click on the server in Chooser.

So I guess the IP-address information is sent via Appletalk.

Best regards,

Mikkel C. Simonsen

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From: Jason Quigley <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 20:20:22 +0200

> So I guess the IP-address information is sent via Appletalk.

Yes, I am sure about this. This is from experience. Funnily enough though,
this stopped happening when we upgraded to 1.5pre6 on FreeBSD from 1.4 on
Debian Linux 2.2.

I wonder if it's anything to do with the way networking works on each of
these platforms. I have always found FreeBSD to kick Debian's rump on the
same hardware in terms of transfer speed.

So, I guess I should have asked what version (of netatalk) "stable" means.

Cheers,
Jason.

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From: "Chris Herrmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 08:13:50 +1000

consider running something like djb's dnscache - will make name resolution a lot faster:

http://cr.yp.to/djbdns.html

it's one component of a range of dns tools.

-----Original Message-----
From: Palotas Peter [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Wednesday, 5 September 2001 21:49
To: netatalk-admins
Cc: Jason Quigley
Subject: Re: Slowing down while editing document on the client

Jason,

Yes. See below.

Peter

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From: Palotas Peter <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 13:58:14 +0200

>server and after 5-10 secound I can continue ma work.

I just corrected the host file on my linux box and removed the notcp
options from my cionfig file.
With this the 2nd problem gone and the tcp connection also seems to fast,
but the true is connecting to appletalk is faster than tcp.

Thanks: Peter

>Chris Herrmann ([email-masked]):