I have a 8550 (700MHz G4 10.3.9) that I wish to set up as a backup server using Retrospect. The 8550 has two 200gb drives installed and I have been trying to do file transfers from my other machines, however the connection from my other machines (iBook 900MHz G3, iMac 'Summer' 2001 Edition) drops out either after a few minutes, or shortly after a file transfer starts. After this happens the icon in the sidebar menu disappears, and the connection can't be re-established without shutting down both machines (8550 and iMac or iBook), after which of course the same thing happens- the connection drops out.

I've gone through all the different settings in the file sharing, network, and firewall settings (turned firewall off) but still can't get the 8550 to connect reliably. BTW the iBook and iMac seem to want to play nicely, but involve the 8550 and the file sharing connection seizes up. All machines run 10.3.9.

Any clues?

Will using Retrospect fix the problem or will backups fail because of the lost connection?

Dunc

no the problem must be with the 8550 and its connection via cables or software glitches through File Sharing
First: try replacing File Sharing preferences.
Second: look for signs of software incompatibility.
Third: make sure that cables are really secure.
Fourth: think about upgrading to 10.4 but first repeat step two endlessly until all hope is exhausted.

Retrospect can only do its job.

the above is not a perfect solution .. just a method of focusing the mind.

Aus Mac, thnks for your comments. Let's see.

I've set file sharing and network preferences to the same as my iMac and iBook. These two share data without problems.

Software incompatibility. What do you mean? This is a finder to finder operation and not using any other software other than what comes with the OS.

Cables are secure. Both target and source machines are able to print to network printer and use web after the file sharing connection drops out.

Upgrading to 10.4. As file sharing is a feature of 10.3 and all of the systems run 10.3.9, I don't think that upgrading will resolve this.

The 8550 of course is a 10 year old machine that was never intended to run OS 10. It does though, through the use of XpostFacto which is a boot loader of some sort (allows OS10 to load to a machine which would normally be prevented by the installation software). The 8550 operates normally for all usual functions-it even has a USB card that connects to iPods, cameras, and USB external drives without problems. It has a Sonnet G4 700MHz CPU. Though I am finding some functions that don't work eg: the on-board video support is not as up-to-date as the cards in later Macs so things that use 3D graphics (such as the cover flow view in iTunes) do not work. That's different to my connection issue though as it's a hardware thing.

I can usually start a session, authorise as a user on the remote machine, drill down through the folder structure of the remote machine and start a file transfer. The session will then drop out and no file transfer occurs. It's puzzling.

Dunc

A simpler test - since the onboard 8500's ethernet is limited to 10mbps, there could be an issue with compatibility & connection speeds alongside your faster Macs.

I'd install a Realtek 8139 chipset 10/100 PCI ethernet card, which is detected automatically under OS X. Some D-Link and Intel chipset cards also work right out of the box, but I'm buggered if I can recall their part numbers

JB

I second Byrd's suggestion of installing a new NIC - pretty much any of the Realtek 8xxx series, the D-Link DL-305, or the Intel Pro100 based ones are automagically recognised by OSX. I had similar issues with the stock onboard 10bT in an old 9600, dropped in a card using the Realtek 8132 chip and it's been solid ever since. The other nice thing about the Realtek is that there's drivers for it for OS7/8/9 as well. Whilst it has issues trying to throughput any higher than 50-60 Mbit, it's a lot faster than the 8-9 Mbit the onboard was giving me.


Brains

The other thing that happens with the G2 era Macs is that they have a few problems sometimes with PCI cards and the peripherals plugged into them. If you can unplug any cards and external gizmos then see if the same problem persists. Another trick is to maybe use another keyboard and mouse. I have had all sorts of problems solved just by swapping things around to a different Kbd / Mouse combo. I also know Retrospect has problems with with some SCSI cards esp Adaptec and in my experience also onboard SCSI. Maybe worth looking at.
Stewie

Thanks,

The NIC is a D-Link DFE-528TX 10/100. Don't know if it's RealTek chipset, but I think it is. I'm not using the onboard network port.

While I'm on it, the cards I have are the DFE-528TX, a Sonnet Tempo card to give me two PATA hard drive ports (I have 2 x 20gb + 2 x 200gb ATA HDDs installed plus the original SCSI 2GB HDD) and a Swann USB card with Belkin 7 port hub attatched. These all seem to play nicely together for all other tasks.

Keyboard is the standard Apple Keyboard 2 (non-USB) using the ADB keyboard port (power button on keyboard) and a Microsoft USB infrared mouse. I also have the standard Apple Mouse II connected to the ADB port. Haven't tried putting the USB keyboard from my iMac on but I'll give that a try.

I dont have Retrospect yet. My intention is/was to make a backup server for my other machines (iBook, iMac, PC, PC Laptop). I do have Retrospect Lite which came with my Maxtor One Touch II hard drive which works fine backing up the 8550 over USB. The One Touch is only 100gb and backs up the user folders of the 8550. (I've got photos of how I got five HDDs into the 8500 case without any surgery to the case if anyone is interested.)

Only other attachments are the Ricoh external burner, UMAX 610S scanner and 100mb Zip Drive on the SCSI port. These all work(ed) under OS X except now (as of two weeks ago) the scanner software now crashes since it's latest update (Hamrick Vue Scan).

I will need to purchase Retrospect to back up the remote clients. Perhaps using Retrospect will improve the connection problem. I've found before that buying third party software fixes little glitches. However I don't want to spend $200 then find it doesn't work. I'd like to prove the concept by being able to manually backup the remote machines using the finder. If that works, Retrospect should be able to do the job automatically.

I'll disconnect the SCSI stuff and see what happens. Any other suggestions are most welcome (even if there is some guru out there who can say it will never work because of <place obscure system incompatability here>).

PS: It's good to see there is others out there still keeping the old Mac stuff going like me!

Dunc

Great old machines these . 8500-8600 - 9600 Lots still doing sterling service as back room servers , file storage , juke box music machines etc. My 8600 is my print server connected to my plotter for printing plans.never misses a beat although its still pretty stock standard with minimal peripherals attached.Yeah put up some photos of the surgery for the extra HD's !
Stewie

I'd be opening up your Console.App in /Applications/Utilities and seeing if you get any interesting errors when the file sharing fails. That might give us a clue as to what's going on.

Now there's a good idea.

Just had a look at some of the logs in Console and found them to be pretty comprehensive...not that I know what it all means! I don't have the 8550 switched on at the moment, but I'll set up a test later today and see if the console records any state change that may indicate what's going on.

Another symptom which I haven't mentioned is that when I shut down the 8550 and the machines from which I have connected are still on, I get a "Do you really want to shutdown as you have remote users connected" message. This is occurs even after the connection has timed out and I am no longer able to transfer files.

Dunc