Ethernet connections to file shares SLOW on Snow Leopard

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Ethernet connections to file shares SLOW on Snow Leopard

Here in our test lab we have a bunch of macs and we connect them via Ethernet to a Windows Server 2003 file share via SMB and a Mac Xserver file share via AFP. When we upgraded our lab machines to Snow Leopard (10.6.1) the connecting time to these two machines was off the charts. It can take up to 4 minutes to connect to the file shares. Sometime the connection even fails (timeout?). After a connection is finally made the speed of the connection is as expected though. However when navigating back to the root of the network share you get the same connecting time again.

I tried putting back a Leopard image and all these problems goes away. It must be something strange going on with the Snow Leopards network code.

This is really slowing things down in the lab I can say. Been searching for any type of fix. Have I've missed it or am I alone with this problem?

Mac, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 2:16 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 21, 2009 2:18 AM in response to SEALen

I would try new Ethernet cabling. SL appears to have made Macs "pickier" about the quality of the Ethernet cable.

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Answer 2

csoracco

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Sep 21, 2009 1:38 PM in response to SEALen

I am experiencing the same problem. Other forums such as this one concur: http://forums.mactalk.com.au/46/73263-slow-connect-other-machines-network-since- sl-migration.html

I with that I could offer some help, but perhaps merely knowing that you aren't the only one with this issue is better than nothing.

FWIW, I am using a 2009 Mac Mini and a 2007 Macbook Pro.

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Answer 3

SEALen Author

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Sep 21, 2009 11:36 PM in response to DaddyPaycheck

Well, we use very high quality cables here. All verified Cat.6. So I doubt new cables would do much. If it was only affecting one mac, I'd swap the cable at once but we got like 8 or 9 macs all experiencing the same thing when upgraded to Snow Leopard.

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Answer 4

SEALen Author

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Oct 1, 2009 7:02 AM in response to SEALen

No new info on this? It's starting to annoy me to the brink of desperation. How did this pass QA at Apple? Don't they use file shares?

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Answer 5

Mavster

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Oct 12, 2009 7:04 AM in response to SEALen

Has anyone managed to find a cure for this problem ?

I've the same issue. I connect my MacBook to my Mini and vice versa. They see each other instantly on the network but when you try to connect its incredibly slow. It gets there eventually but takes minutes to do so......

I tried refreshing the relevant credentials in the key chain but to no avail.

Makes no difference whether its wireless or ethernet and I can't believe cable quality has anything to do with it !!!!!

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Answer 6

SEALen Author

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Oct 22, 2009 2:19 AM in response to Mavster

I've found out more about the issue though. It seems to be a credential problem of sorts. We have a couple of mount script that mounts our network drives at start-up. They are unreachable via the finder about 6 times out of 10. Getting stupid error message saying "The operation can't be completed because the disk "" is not available anymore" (Error code -35).

However if I start up the terminal and then do su command to become super user I can go to /Network/ and then browse through all network shares without any problems.

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Answer 7

Oct 22, 2009 2:35 AM in response to SEALen

Safe to presume you still don't want to examine the cabling?

How about trying a new cable at the Server end?

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Answer 8

SEALen Author

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Oct 22, 2009 3:29 AM in response to DaddyPaycheck

There is no problem with the cables. Everything works in Tiger/Leopard and on all our Windows systems and that is ruling out any cable problem. I mean it even works in Snow Leopard but just very slow when connecting. If only I could be bothered doing a tcpdump of the traffic and see what was really going on. That would steal to much time from my work though since I've got no experience with the tcpdump command and the man page is like 15 pages.

My hunch is that there is a bug somewhere that tries to connect to the shares with the wrong credentials at first then times out and tries with the correct ones. That comes from the revelation that I got nice access to the shares as the super user even when the finder says they don't even exist. But I can't check that my hunch is correct unless I do a tcpdump first. Ahh well hope the 10.6.2 patch will fix this so we can all go on with our lives 🙂

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