Re: [WinMac] Pure TCP/IP communications on Mac?

Subject: Re: [WinMac] Pure TCP/IP communications on Mac?
From: John C. Welch (jwelch[at]aer.com)
Date: Sat Mar 09 2002 - 12:25:15 EST

On 03/04/2002 18:05, "hknight@geocities.com" <hknight@geocities.com> wrote:

> I handle technical issues for my school's newspaper. We run iMacs while
> the whole rest of the school runs PCs. Recently our school network
> manager disabled our access to the school's internet network because she
> claimed that our computers communicate via TCP/IP+AppleTalk and she says
> the AppleTalk component is bogging down the network.
>
> Is there any truth to this? Whether or not there is, is it possible to
> make the computers communicate purely through TCP/IP? If so, how?

From an AppleShare engineer:

"On Bandwidth:
An idle connection to an AppleShare server (via IP) sends 2 tickle
packets
of about 64 bytes in size every 30 seconds (call it 4 bytes/second or
0.00024% of a 10 Mega Bit [10 Base-T] connection <I may be off by a factor
of 10 either way, its early>). When transferring files, AFP is just as
efficient as any other well implemented IP protocol, a single client
can, under ideal conditions fill the pipe with minimal overhead.
For a 16k read/write we have 28 bytes of AFP/DSI protocol info on top
of 780 bytes of TCP/IP protocol info for a payload efficiency of about
91% (it takes 12 packets to move 16k of data)."

Now, I would ask her to provide similar data for SMB overhead. The fact is,
you don't even have to have AppleTalk running out of the Ethernet port in
Mac OS 9. Just send it to 'remote only', and let her kill AppleTalk all she
wants. But I would definitely ask for comparative data on SMB, and a series
of traffic analysis graphs for the network illustrating where the iMacs are
bogging things down. If she can't show you any, ask her how she is able to
determine the iMacs are the cause of the problem, without such
determinations simply being uniformed guesses and speculation on her part.

john 

-- 
"I think love is a snowmobile racing across the arctic tundra which suddenly
flips, pinning you underneath.  At night, the ice-weasels come...."

Matt Groening

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