Mac OS X Server: Mac OS 9 clients may connect to only one Apple File Service (AFP) Volume

In certain situations, Mac OS 9 clients may fail to connect to (mount) additional AFP volumes after successfully connecting to one from the same server. This issue only occurs with the Apple File Service implementation of AFP in Mac OS X Server. It does not occur if the AFP server is Mac OS X client file sharing.

Symptom

This is an example scenario:

  1. A Mac OS 9 client selects AppleShare in the Chooser and connects to a Mac OS X Server AFP share point.
  2. Later, the client again tries to connect to another AFP volume from the same server in the same manner, without first putting away (unmounting) the first volume.
  3. When the "already connected" dialog appears with the list of available share points, the client sees a message that says: "server failed to respond" or a similar message.

Solution

This symptom occurs when the server replies to the client with an AFP packet that is too large for the Mac OS 9 client to understand. Certain configurations on the server may cause the reply packet to be large enough to cause this symptom:

To work around the issue:

  1. Put away all of the volumes on the client side.
  2. Reconnect and select all of the volumes you want to use at once, rather than in succession.
Published Date: Feb 20, 2012