Slow folder browsing on VPN vs Window (AFPvsSMB-well not really)

Wondering if there is anyway to speed up any Macs that are browsing across a VPN. Well the issue is not the VPN per say but more the way apple browses network directories.
I have a 10.6.8 server that shares a directory structure for my organization. In house computers have no problems with speed, as they are on the local lan. Now throw VPN into the scenario.
I understand fully that connection accross the VPN will depend on many factors, one of which being the service provider etc...
If I take a Mac (iMac 2010 running 10.6.8) and connect to the AFP OR SMB share, it seems to take forever to browse the directory structure just to get to the file the end user wants.
Same office and same VPN, browse the shared drive on a windows XP machine, and directory browsing is lightning fast.
It also seems the the opening (which I never recommend to my users) or copying of a file seems to take approx. the same amount of time, whether in mac or windows, it is the "getting to the file" that takes forever.
On the mac side, it is barely faster to connect over SMB, however still nothing close to as fast as the windows machine. Does this seem normal? and is there anything I can do for my Mac counter parts to speed up this process?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Please let me know what additional information you need.
Server is hosting SMD, AFP, iCAL, iCHAT, AddressBook, DNS, WEB on XServe running 10.6.8.

Apple has always seemed to give poor performance for remote users compared to an equivalent Windows setup running over the same remote link. I think this is a combination of several things.
Firstly, the Finder on a Mac gets a lot more information to display a directory listing than Windows Explorer on Windows does. The Finder is of course getting the same file/folder names but in addition can get Finder comments, labels (colours), custom icons, etc. which Windows Explorer would not.
Secondly, I am convinced that AFP is not as efficient over slow links and/or high latency links as SMB.
Thirdly, I am also convinced that the Finder is grotesquely inefficient in sending and processing commands and replies, whereas perhaps Windows batches things up. As an ancient example of this anyone else remember the floppy disk shuffle on the original Macs?
I suspect because Apple have a very fast pipe to the Internet they have not appreciated how bad this can be. They need perhaps to consider getting a WAN link simulator and then they can see the problem and hopefully introduce more optimisation.
Unfortunately there is not much you can do about any of these things, you could try using SMB on the Mac rather than AFP as this might cause the Finder to not try getting some of the extra information like colour labels. Avoiding using the Finder if possible is the best option, you could help achieve this by keeping shortcuts to files on the Server so you don't have to keep browsing to the folder itself.

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Slow folder browsing on smb shares

I'm having big problems browsing a smb share on a Windows 2003 Server share.
Whenever i change folders in the share it can take up to 1-2 minutes before the new folder content appears.
I tried lots of things such as editing /etc/smb.conf and also /etc/sysctl.conf without success.
Anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong?

Apple has always seemed to give poor performance for remote users compared to an equivalent Windows setup running over the same remote link. I think this is a combination of several things.
Firstly, the Finder on a Mac gets a lot more information to display a directory listing than Windows Explorer on Windows does. The Finder is of course getting the same file/folder names but in addition can get Finder comments, labels (colours), custom icons, etc. which Windows Explorer would not.
Secondly, I am convinced that AFP is not as efficient over slow links and/or high latency links as SMB.
Thirdly, I am also convinced that the Finder is grotesquely inefficient in sending and processing commands and replies, whereas perhaps Windows batches things up. As an ancient example of this anyone else remember the floppy disk shuffle on the original Macs?
I suspect because Apple have a very fast pipe to the Internet they have not appreciated how bad this can be. They need perhaps to consider getting a WAN link simulator and then they can see the problem and hopefully introduce more optimisation.
Unfortunately there is not much you can do about any of these things, you could try using SMB on the Mac rather than AFP as this might cause the Finder to not try getting some of the extra information like colour labels. Avoiding using the Finder if possible is the best option, you could help achieve this by keeping shortcuts to files on the Server so you don't have to keep browsing to the folder itself.

Slow Folder View When Mounting to Windows Share

I'm an intern at an educational institute and we have a graphics lab that has access to a large windows share. They use the share for storing large picture files primarily. Only individuals in certain classes have access to the drive and each student has their individual folder. Graphics shares this share with cad students so the share is called CADShare
On a windows machine when the student connects the only folder that is seen is their own which is folder name = 'firstname.lastname'
On a mac it seems to load every students folder within the share (around 400 students maybe?) and then pull every folder that it populated until the only one seen is the one you have permissions to. It will behave slightly different depending on the folder view.
If the folder is being viewed in list or detail view it will populate/unpopulate instantly and will cause the machine to 'hang' while it's doing this. But if the folder is in folder view it will only populate the full amount of folders. If you click on a folder that is supposed to be hidden it will then unpopulate that folder.
This is becoming an issue for students trying to save and access files in Adobe cs2 but it seems to be more of a problem with the finder than it is with Adobe.
Is there a way to change view settings to be more friendly to windows shares for it not to lag this much when viewing or has anyone seen anything like this?
Any thoughts or solutions would be helpful :]
Message was edited by: mcc_helpdesk

We've tried something similar to that, they actually connect using afp rather than smb?
But we've tried connecting:
afp://server/CADShare/firstname.lastname/
and
afp://server/CADShare/firstname.lastname/
It seems to connect to their share directly but it still mounts CADShare so when students browse for files through an application, for example the graphics students are using the "place" command, they experience that lag because of the volume of folders.
It seems like it might just be something our network guy should handle by either making each students folder an individual share or nesting the folders by class or instructor.
Thanks so far though, any other ideas?

Folder appears in Windows Explorer, but not in the Open File dialog

Hello,
I hope this is the right place to post this. If not, please let me know where is.
A friend just showed me a weird problem he is having with his computer. He is using Windows 7 pro, and has a folder under My Documents, in which he keeps his work files. He emails these files using Gmail, which he accesses via Internet Explorer.
All worked fine until a few days ago, when he noticed that when he clicked the link in Gmail to attach a file, his folder wasn't listed in the Open File dialog. He looked in Windows Explorer, and could see the folder OK. I tried opening Word and using the Open
File dialog there, and the folder wasn't visible.
If he clicks in the address bar, and adds the folder name to the path, it opens the folder, but shows it as empty. I actually has two subfolders. If he adds the name of a subfolder, then the Open File dialog shows the files in that folder.
I checked the permissions on the folder, and couldn't see anything odd. What I don't understand is how the folder can be visible in Windows Explorer, and not in the Open File dialog.
Anyone any ideas? Thanks
FREE custom controls for Lightswitch! A collection of useful controls for Lightswitch developers.
Download from the Visual Studio Gallery.
If you're really bored, you could read about my experiments with .NET and some of Microsoft's newer technologies at
http://dotnetwhatnot.pixata.co.uk/

I can confirm - I'm having the exact same problem.
When I try to lookup or save a file from an IE file dialog some folders do not show up. I can type the folder name into the directory field and it then goes there, but this assumes you know the directory name and it's a PITB.
Firefox can browse to the directory directly.
It would be interesting if anyone else found a fix for this - I'll post here again if I find out more somewhere else, but there are not too many threads out there as far as I have found for now.
Found a solution over at answers at Microsoft dot com. (can post links here yet - will update once I can)
In short: There's a fast fix for this issue by resetting a hidden flag that IE sets for some folders. I believe this part of the "protected mode" feature, though I can't confirm and also have no idea how this would protect me from any intruders,
if only (unimportant) subfolders are protected ...
Anyway - if you know the name of the missing folder (e.g. from browsing the directories form windows explorer): in the parent directory that has the folder missing do a Search (in box at top right) for the missing
folder name. In my case the hidden folder shows up in the search - now right click -> Properties -> clear hidden flag. Note: this "hidden" flag is independent of the flags set in windows explorer - that's why you have trouble going there with IE and not
the file explorer from the desktop.

After several years of use very satisfied with Firefox, recently loaded version (4.0.1) severely slows my browsing, and even my system, especially when there are pictures or videos. I said that this was not the case before and my system is Windows XP SP3.

After several years of use very satisfied with Firefox, recently loaded version (4.0.1) severely slows my browsing, and even my system, especially when there are pictures or videos. I said that this was not the case before and my system is Windows XP SP3.

I have had a similar problem with my system. I just recently (within a week of this post) built a brand new desktop. I installed Windows 7 64-bit Home and had a clean install, no problems. Using IE downloaded an anti-virus program, and then, because it was the latest version, downloaded and installed Firefox 4.0. As I began to search the internet for other programs to install after about maybe 10-15 minutes my computer crashes. Blank screen (yet monitor was still receiving a signal from computer) and completely frozen (couldn't even change the caps and num lock on keyboard). I thought I perhaps forgot to reboot after an update so I did a manual reboot and it started up fine.
When ever I got on the internet (still using firefox) it would crash after anywhere between 5-15 minutes. Since I've had good experience with FF in the past I thought it must be either the drivers or a hardware problem. So in-between crashes I updated all the drivers. Still had the same problem. Took the computer to a friend who knows more about computers than I do, made sure all the drivers were updated, same problem. We thought that it might be a hardware problem (bad video card, chipset, overheating issues, etc.), but after my friend played around with my computer for a day he found that when he didn't start FF at all it worked fine, even after watching a movie, or going through a playlist on Youtube.
At the time of this posting I'm going to try to uninstall FF 4.0 and download and install FF 3.6.16 which is currently on my laptop and works like a dream. Hopefully that will do the trick, because I love using FF and would hate to have to switch to another browser. Hopefully Mozilla will work out the kinks with FF 4 so I can continue to use it.
I apologize for the lengthy post. Any feedback would be appreciated, but is not necessary. I will try and post back after I try FF 3.16.6.

10.6.8 Slow SMB browsing of Windows Servers 2008

MY IMAC 21 .5 Inch MAC OS X 10.6.8 slow SMB browsing of windows Server 2008 kindly anybody have any idea why its happened or after LION release maybe this issue will be solve.

Hehe... Servers are tricky things for sure.
It sounds like you're expecting to have users log in from outside your network, but that you're testing from within? Is this the case?
If your users are trying to log in from outside the local network of the server, then you'll need to ensure that the correct port forwarding is set up on your firewall.
Next thing I'd try... Simplify your share to ensure that the problem isn't with your group set up. Eliminate all the ACL's associated with it.
Add one sole user to the ACL, give it read and write, and try to log in using that credential.
Ensure that the POSIX Permissions are set to default. (administrator should be the owner, staff should be group, read and writable only by the owner, everyone else gets read only)
If that works, remove that user, add a group to the ACL and try and log in using a user that's listed in the new group specified.
Perhaps if you supplied a little more info about your server and how it's connected to it's network. What it's roles are etc. we might be able to give a little more insight.
HTH
-Graham

Why is SCP slow realtive to using winSCP on windows?

Why is SCP slow realtive to using winSCP on windows(3MB/s on mac and 11 MB/s on windows)?

You are not having my exact same problem, but try this:
1. Browse to "C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming" in Windows Explorer.
2. Rename the "Apple Computer" folder to "Apple Computer-old".
3. Start iTunes
4. Close iTunes
5. Copy the file "iTunesPrefs.xml" from "C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer-old\iTunes"
6. Paste the old "iTunesPrefs.xml" into the new "Apple Computer\iTunes" folder iTunes just created (not the one you renamed) under "C:\Users\<YourUserName>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer-old\iTunes"
7. Overwrite the new iTunesPrefs.xml with your old copy of the file.
If you don't care about losing your iTunes preferences then you can just do step 2. You can always go back and grab things from the old folder later if you realize you wanted to have your EQ settings, individual track gains, etc...

Brand new Yoga 2 11 - Super slow web browsing

We got a new Yoga 2 11 this morning, and the web browsing is excruciatingly slow, whether using IE, FireFox or Chrome. The only downloads or installs of any kind have been IE & FF.
Based on searching this forum, I increased the minimum processor power to 65%, but that was only an incremental improvement. Some page loads are still taking over a kminute, and an attempt to proceed with a page that isn;t full loaded (i.e. a login), just crashes everything. I ran SpeedTest, and the download and upload speeds are all 3x that of my work machine (a Latitude that is about three years old)...but the Latitude has "normal" load times.
The only other observation I have is that it seemed better behaved before the Windows updates were applied, but there was maybe only 15 minutes of use there, not enough to reliably establish a baseline.
Does anyone have any suggestions for what I might be missing? This might be going right back to the store, as it's not really an inprovement over the 3 yr old Asus netbook, which is less powerful than most phones...

Well in general, Ideapad computers have driver issuess.
If you like we can try teamviewer and try to fix your issue.
Teamviewer does not need to be installed. It will give me temporary access into your computer to fix the issue. When the issue is fixed, simply delete the program. Anyhow, once you close the program, the password is reset and the ID blocked until next launch. I also figured a 1 day old computer has nothing important on it. So if you like, I can try to eliminate the hassle for you and try to fix the computer.
Should you feel uncomfortable with anything, you can close the program at any time.
Based on the speed test, I doubt it is an internet problem. I am thinking software problems.

Brand new iMac: super slow web browsing

Brand new iMac is super slow while browsing the web.
We have cable internet, and the iMac is connected via ethernet cable to an Airport Extreme router. We have a Windows machine connected to the same router.
The Windows machine loads web pages extremely quickly, the iMac takes 20 seconds to a minute to load anything.
Clearly there is a settings problem on the iMac. No idea what.
It isn't the router.
It isn't the broadband connection.
It isn't the DNS server.
Please help!

I'm not sure if you understood my original post, however, I will re-iterate it here.
I have several machines connected to the same network.
MacBook Pro
Windows machine
iMac.
Only the iMac exhibits any problems.
Clearly, the ISP is not the issue. The iMac is connected via Ethernet to the same router as the PC.
Clearly the Mac is the problem.
Changing DNS server has no effect.

Bug in Lightroom 3 - Folder Browsing Selecting Incorrect Text Case

I seem to have stumbled upon a bug in Lightroom 3. I was at first wondering why, when I had Auto Import enabled, no images were appearing in the Lightroom Catalog, even though they were being copied to the _Inbox folder which I created on my QNAP NAS to contain them. However, after the import had finished, I would Sync the folder and there they were.
This was very confusing until today, when I noticed a seemingly identical folder in the Folder dialog shown in the first image. This one *was* receiving the Auto-Imported files as well, except that this one was updating the Lightroom catalog correctly.
What is the difference between them? The second (working) Auto Import folder has the folder 'files' in lower case. This causes Lightroom to see them as different. Presumably this is for Unix support. This is logical. The QNAP NAS device is Linux based after all.
However, when I tried to correct the folder path entry in the auto-import dialog, it displays the 'files' folder in the wrong case (lower) even though both the QNAP folder browser and Windows Explorer display it with initcaps as 'Files'. See other images below demonstrating this.
So I'm stuck. As the Lightroom Auto-Import folder browser displays the folder in the wrong case, Lightroom will always see this folder as two different folders, even though they're the same. I can't rename the folder in lower case, or I risk losing all the Lightroom edits I've carried out against thousands of images in the folder named as 'Files'. Anyway, I *WANT* it named in upper case - this is an Adobe bug, not a QNAP or Windows bug.
See that Windows sees the folder name with initial capital:
See that the QNAP file browser sees the folder name with an initial capital:
See that the QNAP share manager sees the shared folder in upper case:
See that the Adobe Browser sees it in lower case for some inexplicable reason:

Thanks for your post and sorry you're also experience this two-folders-in-LR but only-one-at-the-Finder-level problem.
It looks like I've finally solved this problem, but I suspect I did so the hard way ... if I even understand where in the process things were fixed. As previously posted, when I tried to "move" one folder in LR into the other, LR got confused and deleted the entire contents of one of them! This was the existing one I had been using. Thousands of photos gone! I searched the hard drive and even used disk recovery software but, no, they had vanished. I luckily retrieved these photos from a backup drive, so that's good, but it makes one nervous to fiddle around with this particular problem.
Anyway, BEFORE I imported the new photos from the back-up drive, I first deleted LR prefs and in the process stumbled upon old LR prefs from LR2 and LR3 Beta. Cleaned them all out -- including LR prefs -- and wondered if that had anything to do with the problem. Then rather than Import>Copy the photos, I worked at the Finder level and copied them into position in the <2010> folder, retaining the month and date folder structure. This is at the Finder level. Then in LR, I used Import>Add and the photos properly were added to the existing <2010> folder (the newer of the two that was still there after the disaster ... the new one that LR is intent on importing into). It all works now.
Hope I've written that so you can follow along. Don't know if that will help you in your situation. If you have questions, please let me know.
Good luck, but don't work without a backup, OK?
Best,
Bradley

I have selected to BLOCK POP UPS yet I still receive pop ups. This slows my browsing and is unwanted!

I would like to stop pop ups when browsing. I have selected the option to block yet I still receive pop ups. This slows my browser and is unwanted. I have gone through preferences and chosen to block pop ups. This does not work. please explain, and help.
Thank you,
Julie Stuart

If you are receiving popups, it is possible that this is being caused by an extension that you have installed on Firefox.
'''Try Firefox Safe Mode''' to see if the problem goes away. [[Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode|Firefox Safe Mode]] is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
*In Firefox 29.0 and above, click the menu button [[Image:New Fx Menu]], click Help [[Image:Help-29]] and select ''Restart with Add-ons Disabled''.
*In previous Firefox versions, click on the Firefox button at the top left of the Firefox window and click on ''Help'' (or click on ''Help'' in the Menu bar, if you don't have a Firefox button) then click on ''Restart with Add-ons Disabled''.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
* On Windows: Hold the '''Shift''' key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
* On Mac: Hold the '''option''' key while starting Firefox.
* On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run ''firefox -safe-mode'' <br>(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
:[[Image:Safe Mode Fx 15 - Win]]
'''''If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode''''', your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the [[Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems]] article to find the cause.
''To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.''
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.

I am facing what appears to be a malware, my browsing is slow, my browser hangs and also my system has become slow

I am facing what appears to be a malware, my browsing is slow, my browser hangs and also my system has become slow, these are symptoms, I cant watch videos on youtube

You installed the "DownLite" trojan, perhaps under a different name. Remove it as follows.
Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
/Library/Application Support/VSearch
Right-click or control-click the line and select
Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item named "VSearch" selected. Drag the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.
Repeat with each of these lines:
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.vsearch.agent.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.daemon.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vsearch.helper.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/Jack.plist
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/Jack
/System/Library/Frameworks/VSearch.framework
After moving all the files, restart the computer and empty the Trash.
From the Safari menu bar, select
Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions
Uninstall any extensions you don't know you need, including any that have the word "Spigot" in the description. If in doubt, uninstall all extensions. Do the equivalent for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, if you use either of those.
This unwanted program is distributed on illegal websites that traffic in pirated movies. If you, or anyone else who uses the computer, visit such sites and follow prompts to install software, you can expect much worse to happen in the future.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

The new iTunes 12 does not have a rent tab. I've downloaded two movies which appear in the Movies folder on my Windows Explorer but not in the actual iTunes programme itself. Completely frustrating!

The new iTunes 12 does not have a rent tab. I've downloaded two movies which appear in the Movies folder on my Windows Explorer but not in the actual iTunes programme itself. Completely frustrating! Where can I find these two movies to watch? It asked me once it was downloaded if I wanted to watch it but I wasn't ready to and now can't find where to play these again.

When iTunes/iPod sync process failed due to timeout, the iPod, has only the initilaised filesytem structure at the start of the Sync.
The timeout failure could be due to
Bad hardisk - do the iPod disk diagnostic, refer to this excellent post by tt2
Slow USB port or resource - Dont use any USB hub, disconnect all other USB devices while syncing
Timeout due to Antivirus or other plugins - disconnect from Internet and stop the Antivirus or monitoribng software if you are syncing.
Preferably stop doing other things while syncing this ancient device, which the latest iTunes designer, think will soon be extinct.
Have a nice day!

VPN on Windows 7 Pro, Windows 7 and 8.1 clients

I am wanting to setup my desktop at home (running Windows 7 Pro) to host a VPN, so when I'm away I can connect to it and have network resources available. I want to connect through the internet. I have attempted to set this up a few times, but I
get errors. There is not a server or ADDS running on my home network. My home network in connected with a Netgear router. I have forwarded port 1720 to the PC that I have the VPN incoming connection setup on. Please help!!!

Windows, does allow for folder permissions. That is why, at first thought, I figured using the VPN built into Windows was the answer. But it seems to be really buggy and hard to get to work on a home based network. Setting up VPN on Windows Server, however,
is easy. I know the connections will strain resources a bit, but I only want to really allow only two connections, one for me, to be able to remote control and use the network resources when not at home, and the other for one user to have access to just a
folder or two. I would like to do this without the need of extra software...and without really buying anything, since it is just for personal use. I guess for now, I will have to explore Team Viewers capabilities more.....

W/ this latest version, getting MANY "the connection was reset" pages, plus VERY VERY VERY slow loading. I'm running Windows 7 on a new Dell. What is up w/ that?

w/ this latest version, getting MANY "the connection was reset" pages, plus VERY VERY VERY slow loading. I'm running Windows 7 on a new Dell. What is up w/ that?
I don't know how else to phrase that. I'm a pretty good user, but after defragging, backing up, and getting rid of a bunch of files that "may" slow down performance of firefox, the fact is, "the connection was reset" comes up five or six times a day--AND the browser is going slow as molasses. I haven't had this much trouble since before I got my new dell.

hello whatagem123, it is never a good idea to stick with outdated versions of firefox just for the sake of addons, as this will put the integrity of your system and your the personal data on it at risk - there are various [https://www.mozilla.org/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox.html known security vulnerabilities (some of them highly critical)] that were fixed in later versions!
so please [[Update Firefox to the latest version]] & [https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ update your plugins] (your java plugin has security vulnerabilities that are actively and widely exploited on the web).
afterwards i'd recommend resetting firefox - this will keep your bookmarks and passwords but will get rid of most other customizations. this might well fix both the issues you've described in your question...
[[Reset Firefox – easily fix most problems]]

Slow folder browsing on VPN vs Window (AFPvsSMB-well not really)

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