From: dseeman@novell.com (Daniel Seeman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Re: NetWare for Mac is answering slowly
Date: 4 Jan 93 18:18:20 GMT
Organization: Novell Inc., San Jose, Califonia

In article <1i9jclINNprd@perm.geologie.uni-freiburg.de> holger@perm.geologie.uni-freiburg.de (Holger Hussy) writes:
>Hello,
>
>In the Mac- chooser our 3.11 server is responding very slowly. I have 
>to open the chooser very often until the server is shown.
>Is this a timing problem between the Macs and the Netware for
>MacIntosh (2.011)?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>
>
Hi,

I am not sure I understand what you mean by "I have to open the chooser very
often..."  I will take it to mean that your server doesn't show in the chooser
every time you open it.  If this understanding is incorrect, let me know where
I have misunderstood the problem.

The chooser is a dynamic program in that it allows devices to appear and dis-
appear without having to restart the program.  One can bring up the chooser
and watch devices appear and disappear for different reasons.  So, you really
shouldn't need to open the chooser more than once.  However, you may have to 
wait for some time before the device you want appears.  There are a number of
reasons for such a delay.

First, realize the System 7 chooser is slower than System 6.x's chooser.  So you
must be a bit more patient with System 7 (but if you wait for more than
a few seconds, that is probably too long even for System 7).  Also, the number
of devices to be shown in a single chooser window affects the time taken to list
the devices.  The more devices you must show, the longer it takes to list them.
But again, if you are waiting more than a few seconds, it is probably not just
normal performance from the chooser.  In the cases that you know your chooser
or local machine is just slow, you need to construct your network path back to 
the server to see if there is a problem along the way.

I will assume you meant to refer to NetWare for Macintosh v3.011 (not v2.011
as you reported in your original posting).  There is no NW4MAC v2.011 that I am
aware of so I will assume you made a typographical error.  If this is not the
case let me know...

NW4MAC v3.011 should be the fastest AFP server on your network.  So there is no
compatibility issues working against your performance here.  However, mis-config
uration could certainly cause the symptom you describe.  Commonly, the server's
INTERNAL AppleTalk net number has been duplicated when unstable chooser perform-
ance is the symptom.  So, make sure the NET NUMBER on you LOAD APPLETLK command
line is UNIQUE.  No other AppleTalk router can assign that net number (or a
range that includes that number) to any other network.  This configuration
problem is so common that I would almost bet that this is what is causing your
symptom.  With that in mind, I will end this message here.

Think Peace...

Dan Seeman
Novell
Walnut Creek,Ca.

ps.  If the net number conflict is not the problem, start looking at zone list
conflicts.  All routers on a single cable should assign consistant zones to the
common cable that connects them together.  If none of these suggestions yield
a solution, let me know and I will try to come up with more information for you.