bizarre problem (slow startup since new provider)

[batesman666]

Hardware: Imac G4 700, G3 350, IBook SE DV

Software: OSX 10.2.4, FMPro 5.5 (also tried FMPro 6 Trial version)

Soooo...

we have little network set up, the Imac being the host computer and the others connecting to it as clients. Aside from speed issues this has always worked like a charm.

We have been using a local Cable service thorugh which we also connect to the host DB via TCP/IP.

Just yesterday we switched to a faster xDSL line, got a new modem, hooked it up to the router, and here's where the strange behaviour started: The host DB on the IMac takes much much longer to start up, something like 5-10 minutes or so (previously: about 20secs). If we host the DB on the other computers, however, it opens as fast as it should.

Performance, once started up, is as fast it was before.

Same goes for Filemaker Server, which we aren't using but tried, just for kicks: hosted on the G3, connected to from the IMac, it takes the same amount of time to open.

When switching back to the cable modem, the startup speed goes back to normal.

We tried different cables, tried assigning different IP numbers, checked Prefs and Settings in both OS and FMPro, everything seems to be exactly the same on all three computers.

The only difference between the two providers (Cable & xDSL) is the following: Our Cable service assigned specific IP numbers to specific Ethernet cards (or MAC Numbers?), the xDSL service gave us a range to choose from. Otherwise nothing has changed, the router connected to the modem is still the same, the cables are the same, the prefs and settings are the same.

Now, this is nothing dangerous for us, but it really makes life a lot more difficult and we just cannot for the life of us figure out what the reason could be.

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

thanks and best regards,

bates

[Steve T.]

Hi bates! For what it's worth (maybe someone else will have better tips/answers)...

If the iMac hangs and the others don't (as hosts), I'd suspect a configuration problem. It seems like the iMac is searching for something, can't find it, and then defaults to something else when it can't find it.

This probably doesn't pertain to you, but I've had computers try to establish AppleTalk connections (hang and hang) before swtiching to TCP/IP connections (fast) because they don't have IP addresses yet. Maybe the iMac is somehow trying to publish the db over AT instead of TCP/IP. Check the FMP Document prefs for its sharing protocol.

I don't know where the FMP settings are stored in Mac OS X (I'm still a X newbie), but look in Libraries folders for both the system and user "home" library folders and wipe out the prefs.

Not that you want to do it, but I'm fairly confident that if you re-formatted the iMac and did a fresh install of FMP, it'd be as quick or quicker than your other systems. Try making a new db and see if it does the same thing.

Good luck!

[Bob White]

At this retiree's former workplace, early last year, we had precisely problem you describe except that it was on an internal hard wired ethernet network. The culprit turned out to be what the networks guys call a biscuit which was located on a router device in a wiring closet. As I recall, the biscuit was set to 10MB and half-duplex. They reset it to 100MB and full duplex to synch better with the G4 servers. Voila! Problem gone but it took several weeks to track it down (they had replaced the router device with a newer model and forgotten to set the speeds!). I would say that if nothing else works to resolve your problem, you might want to travel down this particular path --- since the routing equipment is most likely different with possibly different settings from one provider to the other. I may be shooting in the dark here but then again...... who knows. Ethernet is ethernet is ethernet!