Q: Server Connections Interrupted

Scott,

Thanks very much for the extensive reply.  I don't wish to hijack this thread, but I tend towards using the other AEBS and the TC to extend the network wirelessly, rather than establishing a roaming topology.  This avoids unsightly cables, which I am also liable to trip over.  Do you have any thoughts on pros and cons of extended wireless networks over roaming networks, particularly as related to the error message problem?  I am using OS X 10.6.8 and have the latest firmware installed on my AEBS's.  To one of them I have connected a LaCie hard disk.  I have never received the error message, but then, I don't transfer large files to it either, something that would change if I regularly cloned the MBP 13" internal hard disk to a drive connected to one of the AEBS's or the TC.

Thanks

Richard

My experience over the years with PC and MAC is that there is no way to find a good solution with good speed (for me 25-35 Megabytes/sec) to enable disc access over Wifi, it is always less that 10 Megabytes even with n networks. This is for a sort of download directory where there is a mix of small an big files. Small files are very slow, Big files like videos can be transfered up to 40 Megabytes per second with Time capsule Over a 1GBits Ethernet but not a chance with WIFI.

Electrical appliance Network adapter has alway disapointed me even thoses given for 1gigabit that never goes above 200 megabits in real situation, I you ask the manufacturer tests are done whith 2 adaptors ON THE SAME PLUG !

USB connected disks to time capsule are deadly slow for small files i.e 5 Megabytes, large files does not go above 10-15 Megabytes/second, This is due to a small power processor (same problem for ALL NAS or buy a Mac Mini to do that) and a lot of data and management packets trafic.

The only solution to get good performance is Direct External SATA Drive (NOT ON MAC, A PITY) limited only by disc performance or Firewire that can go around 40-70 Megabytes. USB 2, even directly connected cannot go above 20 megabytes, I do not know about USB 3.

As for SMB performance on Time Capsule, I am not surprised as many NAS are below 20 MegaBytes/seconds and SMB need a BIG processor with EXPENSIVE NAS with big caches (For example a MAC PRO would be superb...)

Time capsule is a very good WIFI router very compatible with iPAD/iPHONE, an Average NAS (equivalent to other NAS at the same price) largely sufficient for Time Capsule, even Over WIFI (But you need to do the initial feeding with direct Ethernet connection)

But if you want to extend you Macintosh HD capacity, use an external Firewire (NOT USB!) disk that will be 20% slower that your internal disk but perfectly usable even for Full HD video streaming, VMware Windows or other disk dependent application.

By the way here is the "Server connection interupted again", But I found a solution, Just Drag the window out of your screen, it will stay there and will not bother you again...

Best regards

Hi Richard - I wouldn't suggest creating a wifi extended network due to the poor performance that will result.  I've experimented with it in my house - and what I am finding is that my relatively large house is actually too small for an extended wifi network.  In an extended wifi network - you have to carefully place the access points so that the ranges of each properly overlap.  What I was finding in my test scenario - was that in most circumstances - the Mac or wireless device would still connect to the non-extended wifi access point (with the weaker signal) than to the extended wifi acess point which was in much closer proximity.  Somehow the wifi connection process seems to be smart enough to ignore the extended network - when the network it is extending is still accessible - even though the signal is weaker.

When it would actually connect to the extended network access point - the performance was noticeably slower - and there was often a detectable lag in response - basically you could almost tell that it was transmitting to one access point and then waiting for the the bounce back from the other.  The extended wifi network is only going to benefit you if you have a dead spot at your location where the main wifi access point just isn't reaching - and you would put the extending access point somewhere close to the dead spot - but still within reach of the main access point - providing wifi access (albeit not necessarily fast) access to the problem area.

You may even find that with the roaming network - you will still end up connecting to an access point other than what you might expect.  I'm using wired airport expresses to extend my 802.11g network (not my 802.11n) - mostly as an experiment - and it appears to be working.  When I get another time capsule - I will use it to extend both the 802.11g and 802.11n dual band.  In your case why not just use your AEBS as your router - and turn off its wifi - and locate a time capsule or your other AEBS centrally in your house (or apartment) to give you more evenly distributed wifi from a single access point?  That may actually prove to be more effective in the long run.

~Scott

Okay, I have been experiencing the OP's issue for a while now—but only on one of two MacBook Pros. Both have SL 10.6.8. Both use WiFi. Both have the drive mounted in the background with no user-initiated read/write procceses (who knows what sort of indexing or other task is going on in the background). On the 2006 MBP 15", the USB drive never loses its connection. I never get the "server connection interrupted" message. On that MBP, I have an alias to the drive in the login items (under Accounts).

Dang. I accidentally posted an incomplete reply, tried editing it, and apparently took too damned long.

Here is the complete post:

Okay, I have been experiencing the OP's issue for a while now—but only on one of two MacBook Pros. Both have SL 10.6.8. Both use WiFi. Both have the drive mounted in the background with no user-initiated read/write processes (who knows what sort of indexing or other task is going on in the background). Oh—it should be noted that this is a USB, non-TC drive, and I do not currently use Time Machine. There is no hub, etc.

On the 2006 MBP 15", the USB drive never loses its connection. I never get the "server connection interrupted" message. On that MBP, I have an alias to the drive in the login items (under Accounts). There is no problem with the AEBS shared drive when accessed from this computer.

On my MBP 17" (late 2010), I do not mount the drive at login. When I want to access the drive, I go to the sidebar, click the triangle next to "Shared," select my AEBS, and the drive shows up as a folder icon. I click once on the folder (in column view the whole time), and the drive icon shows up as mounted on my desktop. I can read/write to it without a problem (though I do so for occasional, manual backups). It is in this scenario with the MBP17 that I begin getting the continual "server connection interrupted" messages. Again, I don't use Time Machine, and this is a LaCie 1TB drive connected via the AEBS USB port. The error pops up for me when the drive is just mounted, idly in the background doing nothing.

Because it works fine on the MBP15, I can't fathom that it's a hardware issue with the drive or the AEBS. After checking Console for messages, adding it as a login item in my account on the MBP17, running software update (just Safari and iPhoto updates), and doing lots of searching, I couldn't fix it, so I quit trying. But during my investigation, I noticed that if I access the drive in a different way, it changes the icon of the drive when it is mounted on my desktop. When I access it via the sidebar, as outlined above, it has drive icon but with a WiFi symbol. When I get to it the other way, it has a drive icon with people symbol (meaning "shared," presumably).

Anyway, the AEBS drive has been mounted for 6 hours today in the background on my MBP17, and I have had zero "server connection interrupted" messages! None.

Here is how I accessed the drive. In sidebar preferences, I selected "Show MacBook Pro" (it's the top level, akin to "My Computer" on Windows). I click on MacBook Pro in the sidebar, then "Network," then AEBS, then the drive. Once the drive mounted (with the people icon), I dragged it into my login items. It works. I don't know why, and I don't know why the icons look different, because when I view the drive info, the server address is AFP—no matter how I connect to it. I also tried "Connect to Server," but that yielded the same result and the same drive icon as going through "Shared" in the sidebar.

I confess that though I'm very tech savvy, I know just enough to be dangerous when it comes to networking. I remember having to use the Chooser to get to stuff like this, so this is all quasi-mysterious to me. I mean, I know the basics, but that's about it. The only thing I thought was significant was the fact that when I accessed the drive via Sidebar>Shared>AEBS and it displayed as a folder (with the same people icon on it), when I'd would get info on that folder, it said the format was "Sharepoint." I thought Sharepoint was some Micro$oft technology? Anyway, when I get info on the drive mounted using the method that doesn't cause those messages, it says the format is AppleShare.

Weird, huh? Well, I hope it gives someone experiencing these messages some insight or clues. Oh, and I am running 10.6.8 on both Macs (we have an all-Apple household; no Windoze), and my AEBS firmware is 7.6.1.

A SOLUTION FOR "Server connections interrupted" ???????

Try:

Create an alias to any of your folder inside DATA on Time Capsule (not Data itself)

Drag this alias on your Desktop

So you have an alias on your desktop that points into Time Capsule.

See if the message comes again, for me I did not saw it anymore... yet....

Strange... coincidence.?

Regards

I would like to chip in my experiences.

I had the same problems with the Servers connection interrupted message popping up in irragular intervals, without realy losing the connection.

I have snow lepard and firmware 7.6.1 running.

I had the problem on two computers from the three.

I have two partitions on my Server.

This week I found out that when I only have one partition open on my computer I will get the Servers connection interrupted message.

The moment I open the second partition on my computer, the message disappears.

For the last week it didn't come back since I have both partitions open.

Hope this helps,

Leo

Leo - Quick question - when you say server - are you referring to the Time Capsule and its internal hard drive - or are refering to connecting to a shared drive on another machine in finder via AFP?  Unless you physicallyl remove the TC hard drive and install the drive on another machine and partition it with disk utility - and then reinstall in the TC - there is no way to partition the TC hard drive using airport utility - it only supports erasing the single-partition internal drive.

~Scott

Luis - I tried this ... creating an alias to a folder in Data volume and then dragging the alias to the desktop.  I can then shutdown all finder windows - and clicking on the alias will open the TC in finder again (connected via AFP).  I can't copy any files to the alias directly (basically I cannot use the alias as a copy to destination) - but I can open the alias and copy files to the folders in the finder window that opens.  Am I doing this correctly or am I missing something.  I can't see how this is any different than opening the TC Data volume in finder and copying files to it - and getting the disconnect popup.  I will continue copying data to see if it occurs again.  Are you saying that once you do this that it resolves the popup permanently - or to avoid the popup do you have to continually use the alias?

~Scott

kvan - On your MBP 15" (where you say you don't experience the disconnect) - are you actually copying any significant amounts of data to the USB drive connected to the AEBS?  You stated that you connect to the USB drive on the on the MBP 17" as-needed via finder in order to perform "manual" backups - where you are likely copying significant amounts of data to the drive.   This would  cause the discconect to occur (based on my experience).  On the MBP 15" are you only casually accessing the drive and copying small files?  If that is the case - you would not experience the disconnect warning due to small data transfers.

~Scott

I do not use the "desktop alias to a folder within Time Capsule drive" for anything, it just stays there. I do the copying through finder, backup, etc... like I did before creating the alias.  I understand this is silly...

Since I created the Alias on Desktop (4 days) I did not get once the "Server connections interupted" message.

If you did create the alias, do you still get the message ??

I Have

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50b) (latest) , Time Capsule 7.6.1 (latest)

Scott

The server I am reverring to is indeed my Time capsule. I have no external harddrives attached to it.

I have set up the Time capsule some time (2009) ago so I don't know exactly how I should descripe the "partitions" I have. When I get info for them they share the same memory space so you are right they are no partitions.

In the finder I can select the Shared drive LeoServer and then have two folders that I need to connect (login) to individually. I have one for general use and one for my personal info.

In finder they have Sharepoint as label under Kind.

I do think there was an apple tool to set up the time capsule. Currently with the airport utility I can't edit the individual "sharepoints".

If connected they both show up with a disk logo on my desktop.

So when I only connected to one "partition" (that means visible on the desktop) I would get the Servers connection interrupted message

Luis - I am still receiving the disconnect popup even with the alias on the desktop. The popup will occur whether I just use finder (ignoring the alias) or whether I click on the alias and open a finder window via the alias.  Still- I have to copy large amounts of data to the TC in order to receive the popup. So basically the alias hasn't changed anything for me.

~Scott

I got it again today too, sorry silly idea

Now wait for Apple dev to reboot itself and get a new fresch brain.....

regards

Well, at least you tried something.  Sometimes the popup is easily reproducible - other times it takes several tries.  I have noticed that resetting the time capsule - or simply just powering it off and on again - gives the false impression that the problem is resolved - but it ususally resurfaces within 12 to 24 hours.

~Scott