Mac OS X Server (10.1.4) hangs

[simX]

I have a problem here at the school where my dad works.

He has installed Mac OS X Server 10.1.4 on the school's server, and he has installed Mac OS X 10.1.4 (Client) on his personal PowerBook G4.

The problem is, when they are connected to the network, they hang on startup at "Starting AppleTalk", but as soon as you unplug them from the network, they continue starting up normally.

Another problem is that if they are plugged into the network, the Network Preference pane hangs on loading. We open up the System Preferences application, and click on the Network pane, and it starts loading, but never finishes. If we force quit System Preferences and unplug the machine, they can access the Network Preference pane perfectly.

The problem is, we need AppleTalk for this network, since we also have OS 9 computers that are going to be connected to the Mac OS X Server.

Any suggestions?

[buc99]

Does the network have a firewall?

Is the firewall blocking the AFP port?

Is there another appletalk server running on the network?

Can you get Dave and run strictly tcp/ip through this software?

I'm no network expert, but these things may get you started in the right direction . And maybe someone here will have some more useful ideas.
Good Luck.
SA

[simX]

I'm not sure about the firewall, but I believe that there is another server in the same lab that is also running an AFP server. The thing is, this setup was working before, with only OS 9. However, my dad cannot connect via OS X on either the server or the client.

What's REALLY weird is that if my dad's in OS X and he launches the Chooser in the Classic environment, he can connect to the AppleTalk network perfectly! He can see all the other computers and stuff. That's what really puzzles me.

Dave is out of the question, because it would require more investment in a piece of software that provides functionality that should be in Mac OS X and OS X Server already.

By the way, he called tech support, and they told him to erase the server and reinstall OS X 10.1 Server (as usual ). Unfortunately, that didn't work either. He's still having the same problems.

[buc99]

I believe the OS9 AFP serfver may be running an older version.
This may or may not be causing problems. However, to isolate the issue, you should turn it off and try running AppleTalk from the OSX server. (Basically you will have to turn off items and start them up again one at a time to try and find the conflict) There are some issues with Appletalk and OSX I believe. For instance,
I have an iMac running as an Computer Airport Base station. Although my TiBook has a network connection through my iMac, it can not see it with Appletalk even though they both have this communication option turned on.

Anyways, back to your problem.

A simple way to see if the firewall is blocking this port is to open the netwrok utility and scan all of the open ports on the servers.

When you try to access the appletalk network from OSX, do you go to the finder menu under go and connect to network. This will give you a "chooser" like option to follow the appletalk path or localhost path. When you click on appletalk does anything show up?

Do you have appletalk turned on for the OSX computer under the networking preferences? This is not default 'on' like OS9. And it has to be turned on for the correct network connection.

Hope some of this helps. Maybe someone else here has some better ideas?

SA