aruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruigrok) (01/10/90)
Thanks for those that sent me their comments on the problems I was having with Interpoll crashing yesterday. It rooted out a lot of possabilities (ie. not System 6.0.4...) I did a network trace and learned a few things that you may find interesting. First of all, I did not realize that interpoll did name binding broadcast requests while you were in the network dialog. It explains why I was crashing even before I started a search. What interpoll does with the data it is getting in background I can only guess. One of the last packets I received was a NBP Lookup-Reply with one of the entries being node 0. So does this illegal value of a node number kill Interpoll. I will dig some more, but that seems to be consistent. I am lucky enough to have 2 networks out of our 124 that have a node 0 on them. Both seem to crash Interpoll when I select them or search them. Comments? Other people come across this? Thanks again for the input, Adrian ------------ After three days men grow weary of a wench, a guest, and rainy weather - Benjamin Franklin
urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de (01/14/90)
In comp.protocols.appletalk aruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruigrok) writes:
<
< I did a network trace and learned a few things that you may find
< interesting. First of all, I did not realize that interpoll did name
< binding broadcast requests while you were in the network dialog. It
< explains why I was crashing even before I started a search. What
< interpoll does with the data it is getting in background I can only guess.
<
When you search for a specific type of entity, InterPoll uses these to make a
pop-up menu listing all the types it found. (This is a really obscure feature
because if you're like me, zipping through these dialogs, you often wonder why
the pop-up menu si empty ;-)
< One of the last packets I received was a NBP Lookup-Reply with one of the
< entries being node 0. So does this illegal value of a node number kill
< Interpoll.
But if you really have a node zero, that's somewhat understandable. That node
number is forbidden by law and/or system crashes. (You experienced these...)
Find out which machine sends such responses, shut it down, and fire the
programmer who caused this kind of behavior.
< Comments? Other people come across this?
Fortunately not...
--
Matthias Urlichsaruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruigrok) (01/15/90)
In article <1383@smurf.ira.uka.de> urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de writes: > < One of the last packets I received was a NBP Lookup-Reply with one of the > < entries being node 0. So does this illegal value of a node number kill > < Interpoll. > But if you really have a node zero, that's somewhat understandable. That node > number is forbidden by law and/or system crashes. (You experienced these...) > > Find out which machine sends such responses, shut it down, and fire the > programmer who caused this kind of behavior. You are quite correct! I realize that the Macintosh in question should not ever be thinking it has a socket on node 0 (especially since all the other sockets are advertising a correct node in the same NBP packet) but that really is not the point. Even if this is not a valid response, should Interpoll crash. I think not. Since its purpose is to detect problems like this, it is not very useful if it crashes before you can figure out what is going on. As always, the programmer that wrote this did not expect us to change the network from benieth him. And it was that that caused the break. It would be a lot easier if we could all see the future. God! If we fired everyone whose program screwed up 2 years later who would be left? ;-) Adrian
urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de (01/16/90)
In comp.protocols.appletalk aruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruigrok) writes: < In article <1383@smurf.ira.uka.de> urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de writes: < > < > Find out which machine sends such responses, shut it down, and fire the < > programmer who caused this kind of behavior. < < You are quite correct! < I realize that the Macintosh in question should not ever be thinking it < has a socket on node 0 (especially since all the other sockets are < advertising a correct node in the same NBP packet) but that really is not < the point. Even if this is not a valid response, should Interpoll crash. < I think not. Since its purpose is to detect problems like this, it is not < very useful if it crashes before you can figure out what is going on. < That, unfortunately, is a general problem with lots of Apple programs, and of course almost every other computer in general -- error checking is unnecessary because programs are assumed to be correct, and if they aren't, it's not the fault of the OS if those nice little bombs show up. You are of course right that diagnosis software should not be so unforgiving of errors it doesn't have control over. I just didn't want to start that type of argument --- we had it sometime last year... < As always, the programmer that wrote this did not expect us to change the < network from benieth him. And it was that that caused the break. It < would be a lot easier if we could all see the future. God! If we fired < everyone whose program screwed up 2 years later who would be left? ;-) < If you're talking about having a node zero in this paragraph, it was labelled as "reserved" all along. BTW, I don't even know an obvious way to set a node number to zero. Whoever would want to do that? If I had that problem here, I would assume it's either a non-Apple box which is causing this, or someone went poking (not just peeking) around in the AppleTalk global variables, which is a really serious no-no. -- Matthias Urlichs