Server Connection Interrupted: AFP Shares disappearing at random intervals

I'm not sure how many have noticed this behaviour, but it seems that at least some have seen similar behaviour where the Apple Airport Extreme seems to stop sharing disks.

I've made this a separate topic because only today did I notice another aspect to my particular issue, one that seems not to have been discussed previously. That aspect is that Common Internet File System (CIFS) shares remain available.

Summary.
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Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) shares disappearing at random intervals while Common Internet File System (CIFS) shares remain available.

Discussion.
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I have been frustrated by the apparent instability of shares to my Apple Airport Extreme, both with the 7.4.1 & 7.4.2 firmwares.

I have seen the behaviour on both my iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.5.7 and my Macbook running Mac OS X 10.5.7.

When it occurs on one, the other also experiences the problem.

The iBook G4 is using a wired connection and the Macbook is using wireless.

The Apple Airport Extreme is using the Radio Mode of 802.11n only (5 GHz).

The Apple Airport Extreme is sharing two USB disks. They are connected via a powered USB hub.

I have been forced to Restart the Base Station via the Airport Utility, however that didn't always seem to work since sometimes either one or both of the Airport shares would not reappear.

I also tried using 'killall Finder', suspecting the problem might be a Leopard related issue rather than and Airport related issue, in order to try and get the Airport shares back. In some instances this would appear to work, however I consider this simply coincidental.

The most robust method that I have had is to walk down to the basement, unplug the Airport, and plug it back in. Hardly an ideal resolution.

I was most hopeful about this problem going away with firmware 7.4.2, however it seems to be just as prevalent as before.

It occurred to me this morning that I had another device in the house that was connected to the Airport shares, my Debian box. I decided that the next time the shares were to disappear, I would jump onto my Debian box and see if it were still able to see the shares and access them via Common Internet File System (CIFS).

About 30-45 minutes later, I got my chance. (I should mention that I have had periods where the shares disappear in a short time, and also periods where the shares remain available for a day or so before disappearing.)

I connected to my Debian box, tried the Common Internet File System (CIFS) shares and they were available. Then I tried from my Macbook, using Finder > Go > Connect to Server... > cifs://{Airport Name}.local

Both Common Internet File System (CIFS) shares were visable and connectable on my Macbook.

Confirm Your Symptoms.
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The next time that the 'Server Connection Interrupted' window appears on your screen, and your AFP shares drop, try connecting via CIFS using Finder > Go > Connect to Server... > cifs://{Airport Name}.local

I'm not suggesting using CIFS over AFP, I'm just looking for confirmation that you are experiencing the same conditions.

Please post your insights, feedback and experiences.
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Apple, Mac OS X (10.5.7), Apple Airport Extreme Firmware 7.4.1 & 7.4.2

Posted on Jul 8, 2009 8:17 AM

22 replies

Aug 7, 2009 7:15 PM in response to Cruiser Chris

OK. I just had the opportunity to run Disk Utility with a direct connection. No problems were found. Perhaps the cause of my problem is not the same as the cause of Apple Nugget's problem.

On the question of whether this is a Finder or a AEBS problem, I noticed that as soon as I unplugged the Airport Disk from the AEBS, the disk started spinning again. Also, when I plugged it in again (i.e., after running Disk Utility with a direct connection), the Airport Disk reappeared in Finder and I was able to fire up my iTunes Library file again.

I have also noticed that I only have problems accessing this drive when it is attached to the AEBS as an Airport Disk. This tends to suggest the problems relate to networking hardware/software issues and don't relate to issues with Finder.

Aug 16, 2009 11:07 AM in response to Anonymous182

My connection is working fine for now but just found the following entry via System Profiler under Network>Volumes in the Contents pane:

My Book:

Type: smbfs
Mount Point: /Volumes/My Book
Mounted From: //{user%20name}@{AirPort%20Name}. smb.tcp.local/My Book
Automounted: No

A quick search indicates SMBFS is yet another possible way to connect when AFP is down. Also, it seems possible that my failure to connect using CIFS relates to formatting of the entry in the Finder>Go>Connnect to Server ... dialogue box. There are spaces in my AirPort Name - it seems I should try using %20 instead of spaces. I will see what happens next time I get the Server Connection Interrupted warning.

Aug 16, 2009 4:16 PM in response to Cruiser Chris

I hope some of the info referenced below will help. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to be sure, but here goes anyway.

The following article in the MacWorld Mac OS X Hints forum provides a suggested method for keeping an AirDisk spinning:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080331184914894

The article also notes the basestation firmware is set up to cause the attached drive to spin down after approx 10 minutes of inactivity although my experience is that it happens much sooner than that (perhaps my WD My Book has its own internal spin down after inactivity settings). It says there's no parameter to disable disk sleeping on the AirPort.

A blog written by Rajeev Karamchedu has some how to articles about using autofs for NFS, SMB /CIFS and AFP file shares that may be relevant. They can be found via the following link:

http://rajeev.name/blog/category/how-to/

Aug 16, 2009 10:15 PM in response to Cruiser Chris

Further to my previous post the June 2009 Apple Technical White Paper, "Autofs: Automatically Mounting Network File Shares in Mac OS X" may be useful. Here is a link to it: images.apple.com/business/docs/Autofs.pdf

I think I now understand why the logout/relogin routine used by Apple Nugget works to restore connectivity to his AirDisk. I found an article in another discussion that talked about adding the AirDisk volume to the User Account login items. Of course, this does not deal with the original problem i.e., the dreaded "Server Connection Interrupted" message and why it is happening.

Also, I also changed my File Sharing options to include the "Share files and folders using SMB" option. I thought that not having this option enabled might be a factor in my case because the System Profiler entry for my AirDisk seems to indicate it is connected via smbfs (refer my message yesterday morning).

Aug 18, 2009 2:10 PM in response to Cruiser Chris

I have been doing some further digging around this problem.

First, I got the dreaded "Server Connection Interrupted" message again today then tried the logout/login routine suggested by Apple Nugget but the login stalled at the item requiring it to connect to the AirDisk. In the end, I simply unplugged the USB cable from my AEBS and the disk started spinning again.

After doing some further digging I found that, after ejecting the AirDisk via Finder I could reconnect via cifs by using Finder > Go > Connect to Server... > cifs://{Airport Name}. smb.tcp.local but I still could not connect using Finder > Go > Connect to Server... > cifs://{Airport Name}.local as originally suggested by Anonymous182 so it seems there is something different about my configuration that requires the use of " smb.tcp." in the server address. With reference to one of my posts yesterday, the reconnect worked with and without using %20 instead of spaces in the Airport Name.

The next step will be to try to reconnect using the above when I next get the "Server Connection Interrupted" message.

Message was edited by: Cruiser Chris

Aug 25, 2009 8:57 AM in response to Cruiser Chris

After a week running without a problem, I got the "Server Connection Interrupted" message again today but could not reconnect by using Finder > Go > Connect to Server... > cifs://{Airport Name}. smb.tcp.local.

Shortly after my attempt to reconnect, however, I could hear my disk spinning so I tried to reconnect again by clicking on the Airport item in the sidebar of the Finder window and, voila, the connection was restored. I have no idea why this worked instead of the other routine because I would guess there is no difference from the perspective of what goes on behind the scenes. It could be related to the fact that I have reverted to version 7.4.1 of the AEBS firmware. I did this based on a suggestion I read elsewhere in this forum although I am fairly sure my problems predate the release of version 7.4.2 so, while I doubt this alone will solve the problem, it may eliminate one variable from the situation.

I have also distinguished some differences between my situation and that originally described by Anonymous182. It turns out that AFP is only used for HFS volumes whereas my external drive is a FAT32 volume which requires use of the CIFS/SMB protocol. I am also guessing that this is why " smb.tcp." is needed as mentioned in my last post.

Anonymous182 Author

Level 1

24 points

Sep 1, 2009 2:34 PM in response to Anonymous182

I keep my disks spinning now, so 'disk spin' state no longer is an impact.

However I am still impacted and have opened a new thread called 'Server Connection Interrupted: AFP crashes during copies to|from USB Disks '

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2138088

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Server Connection Interrupted: AFP Shares disappearing at random intervals