Connection Lag Woes

Matt/Jay,

I'm having an awful time with IT2. Every time I switch from another app to IT I get a white screen for 15-20 seconds, then the purple bar at the bottom "connecting via...", and then finally a CP.
Once the app is connected it is very responsive, but that delay is unbearable, unusable.
IT1 never had this issue and IT2 is my only app that responds this way.

What I have tried:
- Trashed IT2, downloaded fresh app
- Rebooted iPad
- Rebooted Server
- Rebooted Router
- Changed pref from default Bonjour to Server wifi IP
- Changed pref from default Bonjour to Server ethernet IP
* Could someone please explain the pro/con or difference in connecting via Bonjour vs IP?


OS 10.10.3
Indigo 6.1.4
iOS 8.3
iPad 4

?? Any ideas

If your Mac has both wifi and Ethernet enabled, I'd switch one of them off - probably wifi.

Bonjour is a mechanism for the Mac to say "yoohoo, here I am, my IP is..." - if you know your local IP you don't need to use it if you don't wish. It's not a "different mechanism" for connecting.


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[jay (support)]

If you do in fact have both wifi and ethernet enabled, and they're on the same network, then that's likely to be the problem. That's an unsupported OS configuration. Most OS vendors, including Apple and Microsoft, tell you not to do that since there isn't anything in the OS to really prioritize which interface gets incoming connections.

In all my years I have never seen any documentation/warning that states not to have ethernet & wifi both enabled. OS X allows it, and even lets you prioritize the order.

Anyway, I turned wifi off and the connection issue is exactly the same, so thats not where the problem is.

I had both enabled for years, and IT1.7 never once experienced this connection lag. It started with IT2.

Is there anything else I can test to get this to work better?

[matt (support)]

I'm not sure what could be going wrong. This is the first time I've ever heard of this type of problem, so I think it must be specific to your configuration but I don't have any good guesses as to what to change and you've tried all the first-line items I was going to suggest: rebooting all equipment (Mac, networking, iPad) and downloading/reinstalling IT2.

The advantage of the Bonjour connection is that it works automatically and you don't have to know your Mac's IP address (or the correct port number). The other advantage of choosing Bonjour is that if the local connection fails to resolve (because you aren't on your home's WiFi) then Indigo Touch knows to automatically fall back to using the reflector connection (if you have a reflector). Likewise if you using a reflector and your home WiFi becomes available and the Bonjour address can be resolved then it will automatically switch back over to that connection.

There can be problems with Bonjour failing to resolve. This can occur because of router configuration, Mac firewall configuration, as well as routers and the Mac getting into a bad state. When that occurs you can see a delay as the Bonjour address resolution tries to occur, and then once it fails it will connect via the reflector (if you are using one). Fixing this normally involves rebooting the Mac, router, and possibly tweaking router settings that are blocking Bonjour from working (and try turning of the Mac's firewall to see if it is causing an issue).

However, if you are experiencing the problem with a direct IP address entered then it isn't Bonjour related. That is why I'm puzzled. Does this problem occur with all your iOS devices or just this particular iPad?

Not directly related but
When I am traveling and connect through WiFi It always tries to find a LOCAL server first for ~ 10 seconds before it goes through go prism. Would it be possible to remember the ip settings of home and if not home don't try to use bonjour?

Thanks

Karl

[matt (support)]

Yes, I'd like to improve that. I'd like to improve it so that if a local connection cannot happen pretty much instantly it starts trying to use the reflector, then whenever the local connection starts working it switches over. That would provide the most robust solution, I think.

Agreed


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However, if you are experiencing the problem with a direct IP address entered then it isn't Bonjour related. That is why I'm puzzled. Does this problem occur with all your iOS devices or just this particular iPad?

- Bonjour or IP exact same result
- There are no other iOS devices

The only variable seems to be the app, or how the new app communicates differently. Going from IT1 to IT2 there were no hardware changes, config changes...

Are there any prefs on the iPad, or Indigo Server I should be looking at?

[matt (support)]

- There are no other iOS devices

You don't have an iPhone on which you can try Indigo Touch to see how it behaves?

I've just been testing my connectivity because I do see similar delays when connecting to Bonjour

I'm seeing average ping times to my Mac Mini (wifi) of 900ms versus 30-40ms to other wired servers.

I presume this isn't normal? It's just to my internal 192.168.x.y wifi address on the Mac?

Anything to look at on Mac for this? I'm a Windows guy so don't know where to start!


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You could try it the other way around. And to other devices. Some more info should help. Also try to ping mac to wifi router.


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I'm seeing average ping times to my Mac Mini (wifi) of 900ms versus 30-40ms to other wired servers.

That sounds quite excessively high, especially if the same WiFi connection to other servers is in the 30-40ms range. If you've eliminated the network, time to look at the Mac Mini maybe and see if something on it could be eating up resources, preventing Indigo from being responsive. This can be tricky... but if you are persistent then you can find it.

First thing, check Activity Monitor and see if something is eating up CPU and/or RAM. If that looks normal, you might need to dig into Console and the logs there. A real-world example, a couple of weeks ago my Mini was being slow to respond to nearly anything, even Finder taking a long time to respond. Activity Monitor showed nothing unusual; however, looking at the logs in the Console I saw that Google Drive and Crashplan were both throwing many errors every second. After researching, I found how to fix the Google Drive issue and simply disabled Crashplan. Things went back to normal response instantly.

Adam

Thanks both - I'll have a play with both approaches.

Interestingly, I do use CrashPlan - but I don't think I put it on my Mac.


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