OS X Defies Disabled AppleTalk Interface

[Chris McFarling]

I've got a Win2K server running SFM and it has 2 NICs. I'm trying to set it
up so that AppleTalk connections are only possible on one of the NICs. I've
set it up as follows:

NIC A
--------
In Connection Properties window for this interface, the AppleTalk Protocol
is unchecked.


NIC B
--------
In Connection Properties window for this interface, the AppleTalk Protocol
is checked.
In the AppleTalk Protocol properties window, "Accept Inbound Connections On
This Adapter" is checked.

So with this setup, NIC B should be the only interface that Macs can connect
to. After making these changes, OS X (10.2.8) is connecting to NIC A
however. I must mention that NIC A was initially the only NIC in the sever
and all AppleTalk connections took place on that NIC. I then later added NIC
B and moved AppleTalk to that NIC as noted above.

So what appears is happening is that my OS X client, having connected to NIC
A in the past, has remembered NIC A's IP address and is establishing its
connection based on this cached information it has, rather than actually
querying the server to find out which interface it should be connecting on.
I would expect this if I were using a server volume alias to mount the
server volume, however, it happens even when going through the "Connect to
Server" dialog box.

So my question is this...does anyone know where OS X keeps this cache of
previous AFP/IP connections so I could go in and clear it?

Thanks for any insight.

CM

 

[William Smith]

So what appears is happening is that my OS X client, having connected to NIC
A in the past, has remembered NIC A's IP address and is establishing its
connection based on this cached information it has, rather than actually
querying the server to find out which interface it should be connecting on.
I would expect this if I were using a server volume alias to mount the
server volume, however, it happens even when going through the "Connect to
Server" dialog box.

So my question is this...does anyone know where OS X keeps this cache of
previous AFP/IP connections so I could go in and clear it?

Hi Chris!

I can't tell you where the cache is but I may be able to provide a
little insight.

First, do you have Appletalk routing enabled to create zones? If so,
then this will allow Appletalk connections on both NICs. Keep in mind
that Appletalk routing is only for connecting two physically separate
Appletalk networks and isn't necessary where you on have one Appletalk
network. "No zones available" is OK.

Also, keep in mind that Appletalk is used to browse but your connections
to the server are made via TCP/IP. When your Mac connects it may be
remembering the IP address and not necessarily the Appletalk connection.

Try forcing your Mac's connection to the server's NIC that you want buy
using "afp://ipaddress".

Hope this helps! bill

 

[Chris McFarling]

I finally realized what was up. It's not a problem with OS X caching an old
IP address. It's a DNS thing I think. The DNS entry for this server points
to the old IP address. Pretty simple explanation, I just overlooked it.

Chris