How to debug networking issues?
Connectivity problems:
Sometimes, you might encounter issues connecting to remote servers and the reasons may not be immediately obvious.
It is possible to debug this and see what's wrong
First, check if you are able to ssh directly to the host with the same keys (-i parameter) or credentials. For e.g. by running this command in Terminal:
ssh username@server -p [ssh port #]
Does it prompt you for a password? Do you see any post-login banner messages upon login? Post-logon banner messages are troublesome sometimes, so it is better to disable it on the remote server if possible.
Next, you can enable verbose ssh related logging in LogTail when it connects to the remote server -
1. Use the 'defaults' command line tool in OS X to set the property 'nmssh.debug' to true. This will write some ssh connection commands and output to the system log (viewable through the Console app (just click on your host name and filter by 'LogTail' )
2. Try running these commands in Terminal:
$ defaults domains | grep stratumsoft
This should show the LogTail app domain id - it should be com.stratumsoft.mactail
Then type:
$ defaults write com.stratumsoft.mactail nmssh.debug -bool true
This should set the property to 'true' and enable some verbose logging related to LogTail now when you connect (Note: you will need to restart the app to ensure the debug level logs are written out)
Remote server browsing issues:
If you encounter any issues browsing the remote server such as slow loading of the remote server directories, check to see if there is any network lag. Use the ‘ping’ command to check the TTL and response delay times.
Try configuring your own system as a “remote” server and browsing its file system to see if there is any issue.
(NOTE: Settings > Sharing > Remote Login option must have been turned on your system to allow local SSH connections)