Feature

Description

Directory enumerations

AFP 3.1 does faster directory enumerations

Long file name support

File names can contain up to 255 characters

Unicode / UTF-8 support

All names for users, groups, volumes and servers are Unicode / UTF-8 based and are compatible with HELIOS Unicode / UTF-8 volumes. “:hex” volumes are disabled for AFP 3.1

For AFP 2.2 clients (Mac OS 8/9), the Unicode / UTF-8 encoding is transformed back into the client encoding specified by the AFP charset in the volume settings

UNIX ownership & permissions

AFP 3.1 utilizes UNIX users and groups and uses UNIX permissions for files and folders

Mac OS X symlink support

This feature allows copying application packages to/from the server, without loss of information

Very large files (64-bit file offsets)

With AFP 3.1, very large files up to millions of terabytes can be handled. The support of file sizes that large is needed e.g. for large Prepress jobs, video data and backup archive files. This was not possible with the 2/4 GB file size limit of AFP 2.2.

HELIOS has already supported 64-bit file offsets in its 4th generation modules including EtherShare 3.1 and PCShare 3.1!

Client / Server reconnect support

The Client/Server reconnect support allows automatic reconnection on network time-outs or failures as well as on server failures (good for high availability). In case of a reconnection, all open files are closed and re-opened

Mac OS X client sleep support

Disables connection traffic during sleep (no immediate time-out).

The sleep status of Mac OS X clients can be monitored by use of the swho -c command, or in the HELIOS Admin “Active Users” list.

Users using “Energy Saver” features (no connection time-out).