Fetch Softworks

fetch hung on getting file list, then timeout error (5 posts)

• Started 14 years ago by jeff
• Latest reply 14 years ago from Scott McGuire

• jeff Member

  Message was fetch could not get file list because connection was refused.

  This problem began late last week. I'm trying to access server space provided by my isp that I maintain a web page on. Interesting, I had to update to a newer version of fetch a month ago to resolve the same problem a month ago. Now it's come back with a new rev. The ISP has put a load of preemptive stink on fetch, and recommends another app that nobody is reporting problems with.

  Posted 14 years ago #

• jeff Member

  Notes:

  File transfer to various hosted dot com websites by my ISP work OK.

  The failure occurs only on the personal server space ie: www.blah.com/~mystuff.html

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Jeff,

  In order to help diagnose the problem and suggest a solution, we'd need to see a transcript showing Fetch's communications with the server.

  Could you please do the following?

  * Quit Fetch, if it's running.
  * Open Fetch again.
  * Connect to your server.
  * Go to the folder that causes the problem, if necessary.
  * After you receive the error, go to the Window menu, and choose Fetch Transcript.
  * Copy the entire contents of the transcript window, and paste them into a reply to this message.

  If you prefer not to post the transcript here, please email it to us at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com.

  We'll take a look and see if we can figure out what's going on.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• jeff Member

  I sent the contents of the transcript to the address you noted.

  Jeff Thomas

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Jeff,

  Thanks for the transcript. I replied via email but I'll post a reply here as well.

  The problem appears to be that the problem server does not support passive FTP connections, so Fetch falls back to trying an active FTP connection. Unfortunately, since you have your firewall turned on, the connection fails, because it is not possible to use active FTP connections with a firewall on Mac OS X 10.4. You can read an explanation why in our "Active and Passive FTP" help topic at:

  http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/help/Contents/Concepts/ActiveAndPassive.html

  Despite what your ISP says, this has nothing to do with Fetch versus another FTP client; any other FTP client would encounter the same problem, because this is an issue with FTP in general.

  The only solutions on Mac OS X 10.4 are to turn off your firewall temporarily when you want to connect to this server, or to find a different server to use. You could ask the ISP to support passive FTP mode connections, but our experience has been that if a server doesn't already support them, ISPs are unlikely to make that change.

  You could also check to see if the server supports SFTP connections, which are more compatible with firewalls. Finally, Mac OS X 10.5 or Mac OS X 10.6 have an improved firewall that allows active FTP connections to work with it (and thus, Fetch and other clients. would work to connect to this server when the firewall is enabled.)

  I hope this helps clarify things, please let us know if you have further questions.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #