Network comparison

[Ear]

I've seen a couple of fairly recent threads, last couple months or so, dealing with networking, Snow Leopard in particular. I am not running Snow Leopard yet because of networking fears and would like some general feedback on what you guys are using and what works best.

Currently, I have a new 24" iMac Core 2 Duo with 10.5.8 and an older G5 dual 2.0 PPC tower running 10.4.10 side by side. They both have 4 gigs of ram. The iMac is a good bit faster with tasks but 10.4 networking seems a shitload faster and more stable than 10.5 on my local network. Internet is fine on the iMac but internal transfers, connection stability and other minor annoyances are bugging the crap out of me in Leopard. Is Snow Leopard worth the upgrade or is it still a networking POS?

I also hate that I can't seem to be able to change the size of the folders in the sidebar of Leopard. I use it for workflow hotfolders and in 10.4 I could make the folders large... 10.5 doesn't seem to let me alter the physical size of the folders. On top of that, I'll drop a PDF in a hot folder and finder will tell me it already exists (which it doesn't). I'll immediately drop it again and it will look like it took it, but won't... usually takes 3 or 4 tries of dropping a PDF on the network hotfolder to recognize it. I try the same task on the 10.4 machine and it works perfectly. WTF.

[Joe]

WOW! Really. I find Leopard networking superior to 10.4. I did have a problem with Leopard and hotfolders using Appletalk but changing over from Appletalk to SMB solved that issue.

I don't have SL installed at work but I am using it at home. There is no longer Appletalk with SL so if you have to print to any Appletalk printers you will be out of luck unless you can also use them as IP or bonjour printers.

I think you are out of luck on the icon size in the sidebar. I don't see anything for that in SL.

[Ear]

I know, I was totally surprised, I figured they would have improved if anything, but I find it sucking compared to 10.4. I too am hooked up to the workflow via SMB and through a true gigabit switch but even the transfers are a LOT slower than off my old G5 with 10.4. I'm sorely disappointed. Could there be any other variables that I may have missed?

I wonder... I ran broadband optimizer years ago when I got the tower and it did improve the speed. Do these things still come out of the box with a governor on them? Does broadband optimizer work on newer machines/systems? I can get over the folder size thing, I'll just have to improve my aim, but the other things suck ass.

[Chilbear]

An interesting experiment would be to transfer the same file to the same source using the two different machines and watch for actual time. Could be a wire (to the hub) or perhaps the Leopard machine needs a fresh install - I am doing this at Christmas as mine (Alum iMac) is acting odd). Is it correct to assume they are on the same switch? Is it another assumption that the Tiger machine is AFP and the iMac is SMB? Not sure if there is anything there.

[Joe]

I don't think I've used broadband optimizer since Panther. Have you opened the network utility and checked to make sure your iMac is going at gigabit speed? Not sure of any other settings. Could be a bad ethernet cable hooked to the iMac. Drag the iMac over and plug it in to the same place the G5 is connected and see if it is still slower.

Edit: Chilbear beat me to the wire idea.

[Ear]

Those are some good questions CB. I have done the test with the exact same file at the same time and the transfer on the Tiger machine smoked the new machine. Both running through my giga-switch... both hooked up with Samba but I just noticed... both are running to the switch with Cat-5 instead of Cat-6. I am running Cat6 from the switch to the server but must have overlooked the connection from my workstations to the switch. Still, they're both the same as far as I can tell... aside from running Broadband Optimizer on the Tiger machine.

[Ear]

Okay, I just checked network utility and it says, 1 Gbit/sec... still going down at lunch to pick up a couple of Cat6 cables.

Some of it really does appear to be system tweakiness. I just dumped a PDF to a hotfolder and the first try, it said the destination didn't exist so I immediately tried again and it went right in. Sidebar seems the most F'd up. If I open a hotfolder as a window, it's a lot more stable than trying to add something to a folder in the sidebar. I've always used the sidebar, it's a lot quicker than opening a damn window every time I want to drop something in a folder. I think the Leopard sidebar is a POS.

[Joe]

Cat 5e is good for gigabit as well as Cat 6.

It appears Apple has their own version of Broadband Optimizer. Might want to give it a shot.

http://support.apple.com/downloads/Broadband_Tuner_1_0

Might want to give this a shot as well:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5670

[Chilbear]

I have noticed that my network hotfolder is non-existing till I double click on it as well. This is Leopard I am using. I was connect via SMB to the server and it kinda times out over the day.

Lately I have been reading about the need to defrag the HD even if Apple says it is not necessary. It seems smaller files get defragged but larger are ignored. Another reason for me to reformat and reinstall...

Discussion here- http://www.ehmac.ca/anything-mac/64315-defragmenting-disk-clean-up.html

Additional - is your Ethernet at the top of the list of connections and Bluetooth and others turned off on the iMac? I seem to recall BT was first and Airport was second when I loaded Leopard originally. Not sure if anything but we are hard wired and the rest are not necessary.

[Ear]

Thanks guys, I'll investigate the links you posted. The funny thing is, Firefox and other internet browsing is just fine and actually faster than the old G5, just seems to be local network problems.

So Chil, are you talking about reformat and install the entire machine? I've never had to do that with my macs and this thing is only a couple months old. I loathe the idea of reinstalling all of the stuff I have on this thing.

[Joe]

Internet, even the fastest broadband, is far slower than ethernet. I think the speed difference you see from the iMac to the G5 with that is just the faster computer. The local stuff is not normal though. Something is amiss there. You might want to run the full set of Applejack and see if it makes any difference as well. Clean caches and check for corrupt preferences for all users while you are running it.

[Ear]

Okay... I'll run Applejack once I get caught up a little.

[Chilbear]

Yes to the reformat. I have Time Machine on the computer and the whole shebang should be painless.. <cough wheeze> Will report back during the Christmas break. It "looks" like you can enter Time Machine and restore everything including the desktop files. For sure SL has the ability to do this as I asked at the Apple store and in SL the first thing it asks is whether a Time Machine backup exists.

As a "trial" I will be upgrading the CEO's iMac (wife) from Tiger to Leopard, do a Time Machine Backup then SL and restore the computer. Her present is the new sleek mouse out. THEN I will do my computer after I get learn'd from her machine.

[Ear]

Paying a little more attention to my issue now, I don't think it's a network thing, necessarily and more a sidebar problem. For instance, sometimes, when I click Desktop in the sidebar, it won't display until I click something else then click it again. It does this with other folders too, not just the desktop.

[Joe]

That is not happening on my Leopard machine. Maybe a corrupt preference file? Applejack should find it and remove it.