Fetch Softworks

Can't connect (4 posts)

• Started 15 years ago by Menehan
• Latest reply 15 years ago from Scott McGuire

• Menehan Member

  I get this message only occasionally, but today it's been on all day:

  "An FTP connection to 68.143.173.147 could not be opened because the connecton timed out. There might be a problem with your network, or the server might not be responding."

  The last time I got this message, I copied the transcript:

  Fetch 5.3 (5D161) PowerPC running on Mac OS X 10.3.9 (7W98) PowerPC English
  StuffIt Engine 0x820, StuffIt SDK Version 10.1.1b1
  Partial serial FETCH5X001-UNL3-4MLQ T
  Connecting to 68.143.173.147 port 21 (Mac OS X firewall is off) (4/14/09 1:25:17 PM)
  Update check skipped at 04/14/2009 01:26 PM (next check after 04/15/2009 01:50 AM)

  Any advice?
  Thanks,
  Karen

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Karen,

  The problem is the server at that address is not responding to FTP connections.

  This means there's something wrong with the server; you should contact the people or company who run it, and have them look into the problem. You might want to double-check that you are using the best address for connecting to the server.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Menehan Member

  They insist that the problem has to be on my end. They (my headquarters) are in Florida and I'm in California. They say that whenever this problem comes up, they connect to the server using another computer, no problem. Could the problem have to do with the geographic distance?

  Or, do you have any idea what they might check on their end?

  I connected to the Fetch server today, no problem, with Fetch software and also with
  Transmit.

  Thanks very much!
  Karen

  Originally posted by ScottMcGuire:

  Hi Karen,

  The problem is the server at that address is not responding to FTP connections.

  This means there's something wrong with the server; you should contact the people or company who run it, and have them look into the problem. You might want to double-check that you are using the best address for connecting to the server.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Karen,

  Well, it's not just you - I can't connect to that server either, with either Fetch or the command-line FTP client.

  The server at that address doesn't even respond to "pings" which are most basic level of communication between two computers on the Internet; that means something is completely blocking Internet traffic between you and them (and me and them, too).

  Geographical distance doesn't really affect your ability to connect to servers; connections over the Internet do go over a variety of different electronic "roads," but you may go over just as many "roads" if you're in California or if you were somewhere else in Florida. The route your Internet traffic takes depends on how your network is connected to the Internet at large, and that's different for every different network. Being farther away usually means your Internet traffic has to travel down more wires, and so there is more chance of a problem, but it's not a direct correlation. For what it's worth, I'm on the east coast.

  Somewhere between you and them on the Internet, there is a problem. Considering that I cannot connect to them either, and I'm in a completely different location (and thus using different "roads"), it seems likely to me the problem is more likely at their end than yours.

  The best I can suggest is that they need to try to connect to the server from a computer well outside their network if they haven't; being able to connect successfully from one computer in their building to another doesn't really prove much, because it hasn't travelled the wider Internet (it just used the local Internet). I can't say for sure that's what they tried, of course.

  I hope this helps some; unfortunately, this is really only a problem they can solve or help you investigate.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 15 years ago #