.mac users help...

[g30ffr3y]

i dont so much as need help as much as i have concerns about my macs performance... last night i was working on adding files to my idisk and working on my .mac homepage and let me just say my quicksilver 933 was crawling... i couldnt even work on the page with safari... adding a 6mb mp3 to my idisk took like 15 minutes... then copying it from my music folder to my public folder seized up the the whole system... anyone else have these issues... im new to idisk and creating homepages... is this normal...

 

[000111one111000]

What kind of internet connection do you have?

Every once and a while, iDisk does seem to crawl a bit and slow down the Finder.

What version of OS X are you using?

Even on my 450 MHz G3, I usually get decent speeds out of iDisk. I backup about 30 MB to my iDisk every night, and it usually goes pretty fast, but sometimes it's slow. I think it's probably mainly a problem with lag in the connection either on your end or Apple's. And yes, net lag, when it comes to iDisk, will usually make the Finder crawl. Same thing happens when you use FTP in the Finder.

The only thing I can really suggest, is to first download Cocktail (available on versiontracker.com) and see if that helps anything. It's just a maintence utility. The next thing I'd suggest is that the next time you use iDisk or Homepage, don't try and do too much at once. I've noticed that if I upload single files by themselves instead of multiple files, I get better speeds.

And remember, if you're on cable or DSL, chances are you've got an upload cap. Comcast caps my uploads at 30k, so it won't go any faster than that. Then take into account the fact that the iDisk servers probably get a lot of action, so that'll slow down things more.

If I can think of anything else to help you out there, I'll let you know.

enoch

 

[SBG88]

You are not alone. Uploading to my iDisk can be excruciating slow at times. It does slow down my system until it finishes. It's getting to the point where its a pain in the butt to upload anything large. If I do, I walk away from my computer for 10 minutes to keep my blood pressure normal.

 

[altair]

the problem

The problem I have found, is that I have an AT&T cable modem. I don't know the exact numbers, since they have changed, but you are limited in your uploading speed to something like 10k/sec. Also, if you max out the uploading speed it seems to drastically effect the entire connection. It is a great way to piss of my roommates, they all start yelling at me to stop uploading. So yeah, it is slow, but i think it is a product of your connnection.

~altair

 

[MacBandit]

What version of OSX are you running? Also what if any other programs do you have running.

I have never noticed a system performance slow down while using .Mac. Yes the upload times and can be excruciatingly slow sometimes but that is more to do with .Mac protocol and you connection speed.

 

[zimv20]

i believe iDisk uses the afp protocol to xfer files. i've found afp to be butt-slow. horribly slow. monsterously slow.

i've found that osx -> osx afp connections are the fastest combinations. when i used to hit iDisk from os9 MY GOD it took forever, even on my dsl (incl. downloads).

it's slow.

 

[000111one111000]

iDisk doesn't use afp, it uses WebDAV.

As for the AT&T thing, yeah, their connections suck. Especially if they give you a Motorola SurfBoard SB3100. I've had nothing but problems with this modem lately. And stay away from the Belkin routers, I've had nothing but problems with those too.

And also, if you're uploading to iDisk, try not to do a bunch of other stuff in the Finder at the same time. I've found it usually locks up when I do that, like when I'm emptying the trash, transfering stuff to another disk, etc.

And another thing that might speed it up just a bit is if you leave the iDisk mounted at all times. I believe it's a 10.2 feature, but it might have come a bit earlier than that, but the Finder now makes a cache file of the location, and contents of the iDisk, so when you access a folder, or move stuff around, it does have to load that folder's entire contents again.

And I'm half asleep and rambling now, so I'll leave.

enoch

 

[zimv20]

Originally posted by 000111one111000
iDisk doesn't use afp, it uses WebDAV.

ah. i maintain that afp is still slow

 

[g30ffr3y]

well, i have a cable modem [powerlink in buffalo]... i run osx 10.2.4 [i always stay up to date]... it got the point where my idisk was the only thing i had running... it seems to upload ok, but the "finishing" takes forever... so long as im not alone i guess its ok... i just never had my mac slow down like that before... thanks though everyone...

 

[000111one111000]

When it says "finishing" for a really long time, I wouldn't really worry. Whenever I upload anything, it always says "finishing" for an eternity. Yesterday, I uploaded a 4 MB .mp4 file, and it "completed" in 4 seconds or so, but was "finishing" for about 10 min. or more. The "finishing" part seems to be the actual file transfer, which doesn't help much since it doesn't give an accurate time of completion.

I wouldn't be too worried, it's mainly a problem with .mac. And still though, I'd download a copy of Cocktail and run the Auto-Pilot just to be safe and to clean up your system a bit, never hurts to tidy up.

enoch

 

[PhotoPhoenix]

old thread, same issues..

i'm going to resurrect this thread.

yeah, i'm uploading files to my iDisk right now and the upload process is always a pain. i never use it because of this. uploading bigger files is a major pain because it ties up your connection for at least five hours. what's the point of having ten gigs of online space if you can't upload bigger files to it though? eh. i just feel that 100 dollars a year is a bit steep for something this slow, honestly. i know apple has the ability to improve this..

 

[Macula]

The problem I have found, is that I have an AT&T cable modem. I don't know the exact numbers, since they have changed, but you are limited in your uploading speed to something like 10k/sec.
~altair

My suggestion: Try Amazon's S3 with a trial of JungleDisk. You will most likely notice upload speeds 6-7 times higher than those of dotMac.

dotMac a big flop. I bought it solely for its iDisk functionality, but I've found uploads to be unacceptably slow and prone to errors, and I'm fuming with rage. The Apple Support forum is full of astonished and furious customers. This is NOT a problem with modems or the customers' computers. This is a problem with the Apple pipelines!

 

[AdeFowler]

If you can spare a few dollars Transmit speeds things up dramatically.