Re: TCP problems only on *some* macintoshes...?

[reti@cambridge.apple.com (Kalman Reti)]

At  4:56 PM 9/30/94 -0600, Myrland J Gray wrote:
>i'm having some problems in my lisp (MCL) application on some remote
>machines that i was hoping i could get some help, or at least some ideas,
>on. i'm using MCL 2.0.1 with the cyclone-cursor-patch, oodles-of-utils,
>cartier's contribs (from cambridge.apple.com), and a whole gob of my own
>stuff.
>
>here's the problem: certain machines can't seem to make an ftp connection
>(much less actually transfer a file) they seem to pause for a while after
>opening the bulletin window/dialog and then eventually i get a message in
>the listener saying something about none of the known nameservers are
>responding.
>
>now, i know that the MacTCP configuration for the machine is functioning
>correctly since these machines can do everything else (eg - telnet, fetch,
>eudora, etc) *except* use the cartier's contrib version of ftp in my
>application. i know that it's not that my application is somehow hosed and
>unable to communicate via TCP/IP since i *can* connect to my oracle
>database with this application via TCP/IP. both machines that are having
>troubles are running system 7.1, have MacTCP 2.0.4, valid IP numbers and
>hostnames on the local nameservers, and have the latest network software
>from apple (NSI 1.4.4).
>
>i'm really stumped on this and would really appreciate any and all help
>provided!
>
>thanks!
>

There is a problem with MacTCP.lisp on newer machines which I haven't
fully investigated, but for which the workaround is to turn off the ASYNC
bit in the #_Control trap in the TCP-CONTROL function.  In my case a IIfx
which simply inherited a newer ethernet board would intermittently hang
or crash when using TCP from MCL (but not from other applications). See
if this helps.  Let me know if it does, I'll try to push up the priority of
investigating what's really going wrong...

>-joey
>
>ps - how can i get a list of all of those patches that bill st. clair
>(that's the guy, right?) keeps talking about, and then how do i get these
>patches?

Well, there's a set of patches that was a candidate for being released, but
I discovered that the MCL system wouldn't correctly compile itself with
all the patches loaded and haven't yet had the time to identify and either
withdraw or fix the culprit(s).  When I do, we'll release that set.

Since that set was put together, of course, both Bill and I have been
accumulating more patches as bugs get reported and fixed.  Unfortunately,
creating a patch to fix a single case that a customer reported is different
from ensuring that it works in all possible cases and therefore is worthy of
widespread release (as the experience with the last set which we THOUGHT
was ready for release shows), so I'm hesitant to publicize the list.

However, if you have a bug that's bothering you (or even suspect a possible
 bug in some area), by all means send mail asking about it.


>=====================================================================
>Joey Gray                       | geek@nwu.edu
>School of Education             | (708) 467-1704
>Northwestern University         +------------------------------------
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