Bad, Bad Apple!

My frustration level with Panther’s bugginess and its ability to kill off perfectly good programs is at an all time high. It initially killed off my CD labeling program (I keep Jaguar loaded on an external Firewire disk to run it.) and now, inexplicably, its VPN to my workplace has stopped working. Not completely. It connects up without error messages but web page loading and e-mail retrieval via Outlook 2001 stalls. (Outlook displays a “Communicating with server” dialog and the standard Apple blue and white “I’m doing something” striped progress bar. And displays it and displays it and displays it…) I’ve now spent more than half a day troubleshooting the problem. I can’t say for sure whether the problem is due to one of Apple’s Security Updates or whether it’s due to a Microsoft Security Update applied on the server side. I’ve tried different settings (including adjustments to the MTU), wiped out my configurations and re-established them, and even loaded up a clean installation of Jaguar (10.2.8) on a “spare” hard disk in my Quicksilver. None of that repaired the VPN connection, one that works just fine on my Windows XP machine from behind the same router. (A Belkin 54G wireless router.) The fact that a clean Jaguar installation also doesn’t work seems to point to the problem being on the corporate (Windows) side; and it might be, but I’m still suspicious since I know one of the Apple Security Updates affected Point To Point Protocol. (My VPN uses PTPP.) In any case, lately I feel like I’m doing no better than I used to under the Windows regime, i.e., I’m spending all my time troubleshooting instead of working.

Think Secret, one of the Apple rumor mill websites, reported that OS 10.3.4 will impact USB devices and TWAIN scanners! HOW? You can be certain I will not be applying the update for days if not weeks after it’s been released because of my growing skepticism about Apple’s checkout of it. I appreciate that Apple is working hard to improve usability, squash bugs, and add features; but most updates introduce as many bugs as they solve. It boils down to a lack of good quality control. I’ve bitched about Apple’s lack of QA (quality assurance) many times on this site, and I’m not the only one who’s written about it. If Apple can’t get a handle on its bugs with only 3% of the market share, how can it possibly handle more? iPods are only going to carry the company so far….

After much hunting, I found a mention in the discussion forums of Apple’s Support website of a VPN client named “DigiTunnel”. The program is a product of Gracion Software located at: http://www.gracion.com. DigiTunnel has gotten my VPN connection under both Jaguar and Panther working again. But it’s still maddening to have to fork out $58 for something that used to work. If I find out that one of Apple’s updates killed my VPN and 10.3.4 doesn’t solve it, I’m going to let Apple have a piece of my mind!