Disconnection - This file sever will not allow any additional to log on

How many users do you have, and which version of Mac OS X Server are you running?

From your description it sounds like you're running a 10-client license of Mac OS X Server and that you have more than 10 active users. If that's the case your solution is to upgrade to the unlimited client version of Mac OS X.

You're not running Mac OS X Server?

Mac OS X Client is limited to 10 concurrent users.

Since you have a user that's inadvertently dropping off the network your problem is likely to be that the server hasn't noticed, so when he tries to reconnect you exceed the limit.

There isn't much of a solution to this other than either waiting for the connection to time out (the 'server' will eventually figure out the client has disconnected and release the connection), or upgrade to Mac OS X Server which allows for unlimited connections.

> It does not always drop the same user.

it doesn't matter which user is disconnected, the issue is that the user is trying to connect before the server has realized their old connection has died and it frees up their slot.

> It is usually one of three people.

This might be more significant. If it's the same user (singular) then that would hint at something wrong with their machine or their network connection. Three users weakens that argument, unless there's something common about those users - are they all in the same general area? a long way from the server? using old cabling? doing work that's different from the others?

> Can I just upgrade to the unlimited users with out going through a big hassle?

Upgrading from the 10-user to the unlimited user license is as simple as using Server Admin to enter the new license key. No other changes are needed on the server.
There is, however, no direct upgrade path where you just pay the difference between the 10-user and unlimited user prices. You'll need to buy a new unlimited user license.

I have the same problem. However I do not have OS X Server. I have the regular OS X 10.4.10.

How will I be able to allow more than 10 users? Do I need to purchase OS X Server, uninstall my current os and install the server?

If I install the server can I run applications as I do on the current os x?

Briefly, what I am trying to achieve is:

use the computer for work and at the same time allow all coworkers to connect to my computer and access files with read and write privileges.

Thanks for the help.

I have seen a very similar behaviour with the client (non-server) version of OS X 10.3.9 here. It was being used much like 'nyarts' system - as a light duty file-sharing system. In our case, the 'server' machine would gradually decrease the number of clients that could connect from 10 to 9... or 8... or 6... until it was unusable and had to be restarted. A restart was the only solution.

I theorized that possible PC clients were grabbing the empty spaces in background, as we had SMB active as well, but turning off SMB didn't fix the problem, so that wasn't it. Nothing in the logs seemed out of the ordinary, but OS X (non-server) is not really set up to track users easily, so information on connections and clients is sketchy without extra software and/or effort. I usually administer this site remotely (by voice phone... not internet, unfortunately) and that wasn't happening. I never did isolate the problem, but it must have something to do with unreleased positions on the server as suggested above.

Our solution was to go to OS X Server (10.3.9) with an unlimited client license. I started from scratch when we made the upgrade. That's the only way to allow more than 10 users (or at least the only practical and official way). Of course now I'm having a different bizarre problem with that which I'm about to post about... but I digress.

I'm pretty sure you can install OS X Server over your current Client version. I would usually recommend that you start from scratch and just transfer your user settings and files afterwards with the migration assistant (this is 10.4, I believe) - but you can certainly try an overlay install. I have not actually done this with 10.4.x, I will admit.

You can certainly run applications on the server version as you do now under the non-server version, but it's not generally recommended. The only reason for that is that the assumption is you want a true server to be dedicated - working hard at what it does best and NOT getting distracted by rendering photoshop filters and whatnot. Running other applications as a local user also increases your chances of a crash/conflict/error, naturally.

Since you're not really trying to set up a high-performance dedicated server, then you should be fine, but some would argue that 10.4 Server Unlimited is a pretty expensive and complex solution for light duty file sharing. You might just consider a well made NAS hard drive arrangement for everyone to share. They've gotten very cheap, and many of them have pretty good interfaces and features now. Many finally have Gigabit ethernet and decent user/group access controls now. Read up well though, some are quite awful too, and price/brand-name is not always the best indicator.

They are not nearly as powerful as OS X Server, but that's not really what it sounds like you need.

Charlie