Clients can't reconnect
It doesn't make sense when a network managed computer is abruptly
disconnected from the server (student unplugs it) and then they can't
log back in because the server thinks they are still connected.
This happens in part because of not allowing multiple logins for
security reasons. Using the "idle" settings in
Workgroup Manager
doesn't seem to fix it reliably.
Another thing you can try is set the Total Time to Logout in Minutes
lower than the default which is 1440 Minutes (24 hours). I set it
to about 25 minutes. If the user is idle/disonnected for 25
minutes, the server should cut the connection.
Here is an excerpt from John DeTroye's Tips and Ticks document for Tiger server, page 18. The full PDF is posted below.
One of the settings that is not adjustable in the GUI is a
value to set how long the server waits to drop a disconnected session.
The idea here is that AFP under Tiger (and Panther) supports what is
termed as ‘aggressive reconnect.’ This was implemented to allow for
minor network interruptions. When a client drops the connection to the
server accidentally (a network burp), the server will allow the session
to remain active for a period of time. Meanwhile, the client goes into
panic mode (not ‘kernel panic’ mode - just a low state of paranoia) and
aggressively reattaches itself to the server, if possible. The problem
is that this disconnect may be an idle timeout/logout - and the client
will try to reconnect. Or it may be a logout and sleep by a
portable, and the server interprets it as an accident. The default
timeout for this is 1440 minutes - a tad bit long. You can adjust this
setting by sending the following command to the server using either ssh
or ARD:
serveradmin settings afp:reconnectTTLInMin = 20
Again, I set my time out to 25 minutes. It is also helpful to
stop AFP, make this setting change, and then start AFP again.
Sometimes, the teachers or students do try to logout correctly and it
hangs, or they select logout and walk away without seeing that it
didn't logout all the way or correctly. The most common trouble
some programs are Appleworks and Internet Explorer. Often the
student will not SAVE their documents in Appleworks and that will cause
logout to hang. Remind the students and teachers to QUIT their
programs, not just close the windows with the red button.
John DeTroye's Tips and Tricks for Tiger
PDF
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