Re: Very slow apple file sharing from G5 over cablemodem. Please advise about fastest way to access remote files.

In article <BF079A9A.23602%mlevin77@xxxxxxxxxxx>,
Michael Levin <mlevin77@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I'm noticing a data transfer rate problem that I'm hoping someone can help
> me troubleshoot. I'm at home, on a broadband connection, which according to
> 2wire.com has a rate of 217.90 Kbps. At work, I have a Mac G5, 2 CPUs at 2
> GHz each, running OS X10.3.9, not doing anything other than sitting there
> (while I'm at home). I use the Finder's "Connect to Server" to mount my
> office G5's hard drive on the desktop of my laptop (a 2003 17" G4) so that I
> can have access to the files. The access is painfully slow, when navigating
> through the remote directories. File downloads are slow too, and 50 Megs
> takes about 1 hour, which seems to me to be about 15 times slower than my
> broadband can deliver. So it's not the cablemodem that's holding things up.
> I find it hard to belive that my idling G5 is the choke-point either. So,
> what's happening? Is it apple file sharing that's inherently slow? If so, is
> there a better way for me to have access to my files from home? If I set up
> some sort of VPN etc. or go through a different service rather than apple
> file sharing, is there any hope that this can be made better? Is it possible
> that our IT people have something set wrong (firewall or whatever) that is
> slowing things down? Surely there's a way for people to work form home and
> have access to files on a Mac server without growing old waiting to see the
> contents of a remote folder to pop up. If anyone has any thoughts on the
> right way to do this, please advise... Thanks in advance!

AFP is extremely sensitive to network latency. It was designed for
local networks and hasn't been fully updated for long distance sharing.
It's a little faster and a little less prone to hangs in 10.4.

You should also check your upload bandwidth. It's typically much lower
than the download bandwidth. Mine DSL is 608 Kbps up and 6016 Kbps
down; about 10x slower serving than downloading.
.

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