Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!crowston
From: crowston@athena.mit.edu (Kevin Crowston)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: Macs on Network freezing momentarily
Message-ID: <1990Oct31.152709.26732@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 31 Oct 90 15:27:09 GMT
References: <9010310928.aa26366@sappho.ux.King.AC.UK>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 31

I'm having pretty much the same problems with my Mac.  Every perhaps
ten or fifteeen minutes the Mac just freezes for as long as 5 or ten
seconds.  It happens regardless of the application being run and it
does not seem to be correlated with any particular actions, except
that it may be more frequent when looking up file names (e.g., when
opening a file).  However, it doesn't always happen then and I don't
think there's any time it doesn't happen.  (I will start keeping a log
of these events, since I'm now relying on memory.)

The Mac is connected via EtherTalk to a Unix machine running CAP and
UAB.  There are about 10 Macs and a few hundred other machines
connected to the EtherNet.  The file server is only used by two or
three people at a time.  The file server is running on a DecStation
3100 and access to files is very quick so I don't think the problem is
a too slow file server or an overloaded network.

I'm pretty sure it's some how related to the AppleShare client software
because it doesn't happen when there are no AppleShare volumes mounted.
Also the double arrow network activity indicator stays on during the
freeze.  I tried looking at the network with an EtherNet monitor during
the freeze and saw a (rather leisurely) exchange of packets between
the Mac and the file server.  Since the Mac is directly on EtherNet, as
is the server, I don't think it has anything to do with the routing, but
I should look at the packets again to see if the router (we have a
GatorBox) is getting in the act.  

Anyway, the freeze is almost enough to make me want to stop using the
file server, so if anyone knows how to stop it, I too would appreciate
the advice.

Kevin Crowston