Problems sharing between two macs

[comrade]

I'll get right to the point:

I have a 17" iMac connected directly into my router on my cable connection and a 12" iBook connected via the Airport Extreme card. Transfering files between both Macs (Personal File Sharing, FTP Access) is painfully slow. Right now I'm transfering 10.3 mb worth of files from my iMac to the iBook and its estimated to take about 40 mins. When I watch file transfers I noticed they go a little and then pause for a while. Upon further testing, I noticed the problem lies in my iBook, which has terribly slow bandwidth in all internet aspects at home. When I take it on campus and use the network there, it runs like a champ. I use a Linksys router which uses 802.11b. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

As of right now, my best bet for transfering files is via ethernet. I have a firewire cord on the way so I can start doing that. But, I want to be able to transfer small files over the network. It shouldn't be so slow!

 

[janey]

Re: Problems sharing between two macs

Originally posted by comrade
Upon further testing, I noticed the problem lies in my iBook, which has terribly slow bandwidth in all internet aspects at home. When I take it on campus and use the network there, it runs like a champ. I use a Linksys router which uses 802.11b. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

check your settings, check your iBook and see if everything's in place.

 

[mactastic]

If your iBook really is connected via it's Airport card, that's where the transfer trouble is. 802.11 is not the best way to transfer large files. If I were you I would unhook both computers from the network and run an ethernet cable between them (I'm not sure when Apple obviated the need for a crossover cable, a regular ethernet cord works fine on newer macs, but I'm not sure when that transition happened) possibly a crossover cable. That will give you 10 times the speed you have now. (ie 11Mbps vs 100Mbps) The Firewire Target Disk is your best solution at 400Mbps once you get that cable however. Just don't expect your wireless network to be a workhorse for file transfers. (BTW have you ever tried a Gigabit ethernet connection for file transfer? Blows the doors off Firewire!)

 

[comrade]

I've done ethernet connections, yes I know it is faster. But, it is a pain to do this as I don't have spare cords (I unhook the one from the router). I have a firewire cable already ordered and on the way to do large transfers. But when was 10 mb's considered a large file? I should be able to transfer things around this size with ease.

I did a little reSEARCH and found that many other people have had this problem, both here and on Apple's support page. Seems Panther has a problem betworking between both Mac's and PC's. I hope someone finds a fix or Apple does it themselves because I should not need to hook up cables just to transfer my homework from my desktop to laptop.