Ghost Computers showing up on Network

peterp100

Registered
Hi, a strange thing has happened to me lately. Multiple copies of my main computer are showing up on the network. My computer is named Peter's OS X G4 and it appears three times when I go to Go->Connect to Server. They are showing up as xxx.xxx.0.12 (my real IP address) xxx.xxx.0.10 and xxx.xxx.0.2. However when trying to connect to these ghost machines it fails. I can connect to my "real machine" 0.12.
What have I done?
I first turned off AppleTalk (nothing changed)
I then changed my computer name in the sharing preference pain.
Now, there are two Peter's OS X G4's (ghost computers) and my renamed computer which I can connect to.
I turned off File Sharing and all computer dissapeared. When I turned it back on they all appeared again.
I can't figure out what is happening and how I can remove these Ghost computers.
Thanks in advance,
Peter P.
 
Who you gonna call?

Man, I think you might have a poltergeist living inside your Mac. One would think that if a poltergeist were to occupy any computer it would be an EVIL Windows machine.

Whatever you do, NEVER CROSS THE BEAMS, that would be bad.
 
Sorry, I can't help, just confirm that I have the same thing happening here: every Mac (regardless whether OS 9 or OS X) on our network shows up several times in the "Connect to" dialog. However, I never had trouble conncting. A bug?:confused:
 
I too have nothing useful to contribute but like exercising my fingers: I only have two macs on my network, but at least a dozen macs (all the same) show up Connect to Server box.

-Rob
 
This is from OSXFAQ;

When you choose Go--> Connect to Server...(Command-K) in the Finder, you should see a list of all the servers you can choose to connect to. Sometimes you will see multiple entries for a computer or computers on your network. For example, my computer is named "Bob's Big Mac". Every so often when I try to mount a server volume I see six Bob's Big Mac items in the Connect to Server dialog box instead of the one I should see. It's annoying and unsightly, and worst of all, only one of the six actually works - selecting any of the other five brings on a quick episode of spinning beach ball as your Mac searches for a machine that doesn't exist.

There are probably several ways to fix it but the one Apple recommended to me was this:

Launch Terminal. Type:


* cd.. (return)
* cd.. (return)
* cd var (return)
* sudo rm slp.regfile (return)




Now restart your Macintosh. When you revisit the Connect to Server dialog box, you should only see one instance of your Mac. There are no ill effects I know of.

UNIX-to-English Translation:


* cd = change directory (change the active folder).
* .. = to parent directory (to the folder that contains this one)
* = execute (do what I just typed).
* So typing "cd.. (return) cd.. (return)" moves you up two levels in the directory tree.
* cd var (return) = changes directory to var (make the invisible folder "var" the active folder).
* sudo = act as root temporarily (lets you do things you canÕt usually do under UNIX).
* rm = remove (delete).
* slp.regfile = name of file to be rm-ed (name of file to be deleted).




If you want to see for yourself if the file slp.regfile is really in your var directory (folder), before typing the sudo line, type "ls (return)". That will display a list of files in the current directory (which should be var). Try using ls before you rm (remove) the file and then again after.

One last thing: I suspect that my cable modem, which uses DHCP, has something to do with this issue's occurrence. The Apple guy said as much (seems to happen to cable users a lot more than DSL users...) And since DHCP means I donÕt have a fixed IP address (I get a new one every time I start up my Mac), my theory is that the Connect to Server dialog box doesn't forget all or some of my previous IP addresses.

Anyway, I do know how to fix it now so when it happens, it just takes me a few keystrokes before all's well again.

To discuss this tip in Dr. Mac's OSXFAQ Forum, click here:
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?topic=131&forum=100&0
 
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