Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!claris!peirce From: peirce@claris.com (Michael Peirce) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk Subject: Re: Re: Broadcast and Re: Timbuktu and Mac IIci Message-ID: <10616@claris.com> Date: 16 Oct 89 20:07:30 GMT References: Reply-To: peirce@claris.com (Michael Peirce) Organization: Claris Corporation, Santa Clara CA Lines: 40 In article BSCHMIDT@bnr.ca (Ben Schmidt, B.T.) writes: > >Another Broadcast related problem - entirely Apple's fault - is the >limited NBP response cache in the chooser (as previously discussed here) >This means that if you select Broadcast for a zone where every Mac seems >to have Broadcast installed, you'll see a list of Mac names flickering >in and out, in different orders, sometimes disappearing completely, >every 7.5 (5 x 1.5) seconds, as the NBP responses from all the Macs >compete for the woefully inadequate NBP name response buffer Apple has >coded into the Chooser DA. > I agree that the Chooser is underpowered for use in highly populated network. As far as I can tell, there is no way to modify the chooser to increase its buffer sizes or lower the NBP frequency. (And certainly no way to do this from within an RDEV.) These two variables frustrated me enough when I was developing Public Folder that I decided to throw in the towel completely and do the lookups myself. This allows me to use a larger buffer, only do the NBP lookups once (then keep quiet), and even to alphabetize the listing. There's a downside to doing it yourself. The Chooser only gives you one shot to fill in the list, so if you miss something, you don't have a chance to fill it in with more complete information later. Still, the Chooser was so totally unworkable on large nets, that anyone doing a serious RDEV that might have many users in a zone should consider doing the job themselves... [I understand that system 7.0 will increase the NBP lookup buffer in the Chooser some, but this is still just a band-aid fix until this boundary is crossed.] Claris Corp. | Michael R. Peirce -------------+-------------------------------------- | 5201 Patrick Henry Drive MS-C4 | Box 58168 | Santa Clara, CA 95051-8168 | (408) 987-7319 | AppleLink: peirce1 | Internet: peirce@claris.com | uucp: {ames,decwrl,apple,sun}!claris!peirce