Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Crashes while being TOPS server
Message-ID: <3598@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 11 Dec 87 07:31:38 GMT
References: <4632@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, TOPS Division, Berkeley
Lines: 23

In article <4632@well.UUCP> alcmist@well.UUCP (Frederick Wamsley) writes:
>My company is running a TOPS network of Mac II's (4.1/5.5) over Phonenet
>cabling.  Machines which have published folders will intermittently
>crash with bus errors when someone else on the network tries to copy a 
>file from them.  The crash generally happens after the file has been copied.
>The problem has no clear correlation with what the server is doing (it's
>even happened in the Finder's idle loop).  The problem never occurs 
>when we try to duplicate it :-)
>
>The TOPS folks suggested a software upgrade (which hasn't completely
>solved things).  Beyond that they say they can't duplicate the problem.
>I believe them.  I'm running on the assumption that something in our
>configuration is destabilizing TOPS.

When'd you upgrade?  This was a known problem - the bug is actually in the
Mac II ROM ATP implementation.  The released TOPS II works around it
invisibly.  I keep a folder always published on my Mac II with the current
TOPS Terminal in it, so there are frequent downloads from my Mac II, and it
hasn't crashed since the bug was worked around in mid-November.
-- 
Tim Maroney, {ihnp4,sun,well,ptsfa,lll-crg}!hoptoad!tim; hoptoad!tim@lll-crg
"You say that this wasn't in your plan
 Don't mess around with the Demolition Man"