Firewire 800 between macpros...flaky?

[Jabez]

I have a dual G5 running 10.4.11 and a 8 core 2.8 running 10.5.8. I have the two machines connected via the internal FW800 ports and for sake of clarity we will call the G5 the slave. I am using Apple Remote (via system preferences) to share the screen with no issues. I can connect and browse with no issues. However, when I drag and drop a file the transfer starts (file copy status bar opens and shows some XXX amount copied) and then the action stops/pauses. The status bar stays open, I can concurrently work on the remote desktop, I can concurrently browse the HD. After some amount of time the transfer will resume and finish. The connection is not dropping out as verified by the concurrent actions on the remote desktop and the ability to browse the HD during this pause. Any help here? Thanks.

[Genghis Khan]

How much is some amount of time?

5 seconds?
30 seconds?
5 minutes?

Unfortunately all I can suggest is checking your file sharing preferences.

[Jabez]

Thats a good question...I guess it's all relative. To expound on that:

When I make the connection via ethernet and preform said file transfer I get an immediate status bar and the file transfer takes about a minute (I am using the same file over and over for TS purposes).

When I make the connection via FW (ethernet disconnected) and I make said file transfer the status window does not pop up for roughly 30 seconds and then the file transfer shows progress, then pauses for about 45sec to 1 minute then resumes and finishes in about 10 seconds.

So if you put all of that together it ALMOST looks like the progress bar is not getting updated when using FW but I my opinion it is not just that. I have had 2 instances where the file transfer completed without interruption and at FW800 speeds it moved the file in about 5 seconds.

I also just ran a test with a 3.25GB file and it copied 2.7GB in about a minute then paused for about 1.5 minutes then copied upto 2.81BG and stopped for about 3 minutes then copied upto 2.93GB then stopped for about 2 minutes and copied upto 3.21GB then stopped for about 4 minutes and then completed copying.

[Jabez]

Just got off with AppleCare. After much testing the problem appears to be incompatibility between the OS's. Ethernet works fine as a transfer solution but 400 or 800 FW looks like it is out. I am trying some test on Root to Root transfers that appear may work but anything in a folder causes the issue for sure.

I my case I am using my G5 as my RIP and so I need to transfer big files from my work machine to it for printing hence the preferable FW800 connection. If this is your case and you have to run 10.4.x for your RIP and you want to use a FW network connection looks like it is not going to work.