Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!acns.nwu.edu!jln
From: jln@acns.nwu.edu (John Norstad)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: RE> Telnet/MacTCP/Appletal
Message-ID: <3575@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 90 18:44:29 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: Northwestern University
Lines: 39
References:<9002061745.AA14595@oaunx1.CTD.ORNL.GOV> <1990Feb6.215548.13252@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>

We also have problems with MacTCP on our PhoneNet/FastPath 2U/K-STAR 
setup.  We've observed frequent NCSA Telnet and Brown TN3270 hangs, and 
also frequent crashes of our QuickMail/StarNine server.  We do not have 
any problems with the exact same software running on Macs directly 
connected to Ethernets.

Thanks to Steve Dorner for his bug report and hack fix - I'll try it out 
here.  Hope it helps.

I used Mac debugging tools to isolate the cause of our QuickMail/StarNine 
server crashes, and it was indeed a bug in MacTCP involving NBP confirm 
replies coming back from the FastPath 2U during receipt of incoming mail 
by the StarNine bridge.  I wasn't able to figure out any way to fix the 
problem myself with a patch (there's some sort of buffer pool that was 
empty, and MacTCP was writing incoming data all over low core).  I 
informed Apple (in excruciating detail) of the bug, and was assured that a 
fix would be available "real soon now".  That was several months ago, and 
we're still waiting, of course...

We have  a new true FastPath 4 to replace our 2U, and there's some 
conjecture that installing the 4 will help, but I don't hold out much 
hope.  I think the real cause of our problem is bugs in MacTCP.  (I tried 
to install the FastPath 4 yesterday, but being the worthless hunk of metal 
that it is, I couldn't get it to work - I almost drop-kicked it into Lake 
Michigan :-)

All of this recent TCP/IP networking software for the Mac is truly 
wonderful.  Too bad it's still beta :-)  

We set a new record yesterday - our QuickMail/StarNine server crashed 21 
times.  I use MacMH for my mail - quess why :-).

I've got some smiley faces above, but this is really a serious problem.  
We'd very much like to aggressively promote this new technology all over 
campus here at NU, but we can't until it's much more robust.

John Norstad
Northwestern University
jln@acns.nwu.edu