iDisk, the horror and the pain...

R

runner#5

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Is iDisk supposed to be so abominably slow? Slow, such as that I have to wait when I highlight a folder on my iDisk, and wait even longer (several seconds) every time I open a window. I know that it is a real-time and net-accessed shared disk, but still... So tell me, folks, about yer iDisk experiences...
 
first of all, there is a difference in when you access it. i normally don't get on until after midnite pst and it runs smoother than the occassional times i try during the day or evening.

second look thru all your folders sometime. there is alot of stuff there from shared sources that must all be accounted for before it acknoledges completion. i have always wondered if trashing some of these might help. but no more than i access my idisk, it is really not worth my effort to do it yet.
 
i have posted a thread on this previously as well. idisk is mega slow.

i dont use it unless absolutely necessary.
 
Well, fudge Apple then. If everyone feels this way, how come there is no reciprocality? In the mutual relationship of love we share with Apple (they keep us alive, we keep them alive), they should listen to us... :p I have tried similar solutions, and it isn't that hard to increase the speed of a netbased disk. Expecially now that hardly anyone uses it... ;-)
 
Actually you can speed up your iDisk -
Mount it and use the Terminal to navigate it (Its in your Volumes...;) ). I found that the speed then is quite acceptable even compared to ftp transfers.

ali
 
Yes, I only use terminal to operate iDisk. In Finder, it has to download all the resources, including icons and previews, and that is what slows it down. In terminal you can jump from folder to folder quite quickly.
 
It's horrible for me too. I have a cable modem. what is everyone else using? Do you have a decent experience with DSL?
 
I access idisk from my WinXp's IE. And it is fast. I open it as a folder (WebDav) from IE. Thats kinda screwed up. Maybe its just an Apple thing. Strange.
 
Just by using regular UNIX commands .. since it see's your iDisk and just another 'partition' or whatever.
 
this seems to me that it is simply about the the way aqua/ the finder lists files and the protocol that is being used (AFP).

does anyone know if there is a way to mount an iDisK via WebDAV in the MacOSX finder? Perhaps we can blame iDisk's speed problem on AFP.
 
I dunno, I don't think the iDisk speed is that bad. I use it probably everyday, I mean it is hella slow compaired to just using FTP, but I can't pass up 20 mb of space, no banners and virtually unlimited bandwidth for $0. I don't see Microsoft or Dell doing that.
 
When using the terminal and trying to access iDisk I get this error when cd... ing to Mac OS X Software folder

[localhost:/volumes/mactech/Software] mactech% ls -A
.DS_Store Apple Software Extras Mac OS X Software
[localhost:/volumes/mactech/Software] mactech% ls -F
Apple Software/ Extras/ Mac OS X Software/
[localhost:/volumes/mactech/Software] mactech% cd Mac OS X Software
cd: Too many arguments.

until I put quotes around "Mac OS X Software" I could not access it.
Thought it might help someone else who runs into this problem.
 
With the release of OS X 10.1 Apple changed access to iDisk from Appletalk Filing Protocol (AFP) to WebDAV which is as slow as a wet week. To get your old speed back, from the menu bar select Go...Connect to server and enter afp://idisk.mac.com. Enter your username and password when asked, and you will have speed back, but you will have a time out if your iDisk is idle after 15 minutes.......with WebDAV that does not occurr.
 
Thanks JJJ!!! :D :D :D

I wouldn't say the AFP access method is blindingly fast, but at least it makes iDisk usable again.
 
Yeah, AFP is a little faster, but it still hangs my finder for 20-30 seconds every time I try to open a folder.

It's sad that my iDisk is quite snappy on Windows NT but downright useless on Mac OS X.

-Rob
 
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