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Cause of stalled xfers? (30 posts)

  • Started 16 years ago by FritzLaurel
  • Latest reply 15 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • FritzLaurel Member

    Just out of curiosity, in your experience, what's the leading cause(s) of stalled transfers with fetch?

    It always seems to stall right at the end when it gets to 100% (or 99.9%, I can't tell). I should also note that it happens inconsistently.

    Thanks
    FL

    [This message has been edited by FritzLaurel (edited 07-16-2007).]

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    We know about one cause of stalls at the end of transfers, and we put a fix for that problem in Fetch 5.2. So if you aren't using 5.2 (or 5.2.1), I would strongly recommend upgrading.

    If you still see stalls with 5.2.1 I'd be interested in hearing more.

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • FritzLaurel Member

    Thanks for the reply, Jim.

    Yep, I'm using 5.2.1.

    What would you like to know?

    FL

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    About how often do you see stalls -- 10% of the time? 90%?

    Do you see them with uploads, downloads, or both?

    Have you tried clicking Stop and resuming the upload or download after you see a stall? Has that worked?

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • FritzLaurel Member

    Well, it's a weird situation, that's why I was asking you opinion. There's definitely something going on and I'd like to track it down. I DON'T know that it's a problem with fetch, only that fetch is the app where I see the problem manifest most often.

    I rent a dedicated server from a company in Arizona. Initially, I didn't see many stalled transfers at all (up or down) between my house and that server. Now, though, it seems that a large percentage 90%f large transfers (over, say, 20MB) seem to stall. Text files and other small files <1MB are okay.

    There have been two major changes recently to the network involved. 1) my home ISP swapped my cable modem and 2) my server hosting company just moved data centers, physically moving my dedicated server from one building to another.

    I'm prone to think that there is a problem on the server side as I don't get many stalled transfers from any other server, I just don't know what to look for.

    Hopefully you will have some insight.

    I haven't tried resuming yet, but I'll try that soon. I now see stalls on both uploads and downloads, and the chance of a stall seems to rise with the size of the file.

    Thanks again!
    FL

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    My best guess at this point would be that you're temporarily losing network connectivity, and it's happening more with big transfers just because they take longer (and so there's more opportunity for a random outage to affect them). But that would not explain why they happen at the end of a transfer.

    I'll be curious to hear if resuming works for you.

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • FritzLaurel Member

    I agree -- it's odd that it only happens at the end of the transfer. I've never (not yet) had a transfer drop out mid-way, even on large 100sMB or GBs, only at the very end.

    Resuming does indeed work for downloads, but I haven't tried to resume an upload yet. When I do stop a stalled download and resume it, it takes a split second to contact the server and then fetch changes the file's type (& icon), etc and all is well.

    When it stalls on uploading, I stop the upload without doing a resume and then download it back to my local machine, stopping and resuming the download at stall, and the file opens fine.

    It's as if there's some final handshake that's not completed successfully, or not to Fetch's liking anyway.

    By the way, I'm now seeing 99% stalls on transfers over 4MB, and 100% on transfers over 10MB. Not that I've done any attempt to relate it to filesize, mind you.

    Thanks again!
    FL

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    The way FTP works is that commands are sent on one connection (the "control" connection), while the actual data transfer happens on a second connection (the "data" connection). The stall you are describing is consistent with a failure of the control connection. I.e. all the data is sent successfully, but the server's response (the way it tells Fetch "OK, the transfer is done") does not make it back to Fetch because the control connection has been dropped.

    We made a change in Fetch 5.2 to make this less likely, but apparently we didn't eliminate all the causes. Would you be willing to collect a packet trace of a transfer, so I can look at the actual packets that are being sent?

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • BFC Member

    I get this occasionally as well. I'm on dialup and the file size is generally fairly modest in size (~2mb). I'm using 5.2 but am about to upgrade to 5.2.1. Like Fritz, it doesn't happen all the time. However, I have not noted any sort of consistent behavior or tried to work around it. Unlike earlier builds, where it would hang forever, this one clears itself out and the upload is successfull.

    Steve

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • FritzLaurel Member

    Okay, Jim, I've got some traces for you. Send me an email address (or ftp account info) and I'll send 'em onward. You should have my email address with this account.

    Thanks!
    FL

    By the way, whenever I try to reply on this board, if I get a screen where the button says "Go" then it never works. I have to keep clicking the reply link until I get a button that says "Submit Reply" and only then will my reply actually go through.

    [This message has been edited by FritzLaurel (edited 07-24-2007).]

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    You can email the traces to bugs at fetchsoftworks dot com.

    I've never seen the "Go" button, but we're aware of some of the problems with this message board software, and are working on solutions.

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • FritzLaurel Member

    Sorry, Jim, I've been super busy this past week. I'll get you those traces as soon as I get time. By the way -- do you want the full traces? They're upwards of 20-35MB and might not go over email.

    Thanks!
    FL

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    Could you connect to ftp.fetchsoftworks.com (leave Username and Password blank), go into the "incoming" folder (ignore the permission error message), and upload the packet traces there? Then send me an email (to bugs) so I know to download them.

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • tahoeths Member

    Jim:
    I just got Fetch and notice the same "stalls" at the end of transfers. I am checking the files on a windows machine with WS-FTP software (a very good ftp program, which is not available for MAC) and the files seem to be there fine. Your software needs this fixed for confirmation of files being uploaded successfully... otherwise we DO NOT KNOW!!!

    Originally posted by JimMatthews:

    The way FTP works is that commands are sent on one connection (the "control" connection), while the actual data transfer happens on a second connection (the "data" connection). The stall you are describing is consistent with a failure of the control connection. I.e. all the data is sent successfully, but the server's response (the way it tells Fetch "OK, the transfer is done") does not make it back to Fetch because the control connection has been dropped.

    We made a change in Fetch 5.2 to make this less likely, but apparently we didn't eliminate all the causes. Would you be willing to collect a packet trace of a transfer, so I can look at the actual packets that are being sent?

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Originally posted by tahoeths:

    I just got Fetch and notice the same "stalls" at the end of transfers. I am checking the files on a windows machine with WS-FTP software (a very good ftp program, which is not available for MAC) and the files seem to be there fine. Your software needs this fixed for confirmation of files being uploaded successfully... otherwise we DO NOT KNOW!!!

    Hi tahoeths,

    We're sorry to hear you're having this problem with Fetch. We are continuing to investigate it to try to find the cause.

    If you could give us some additional information, we would appreciae it.

    Does every one of your transfers stall at the end?

    Does this happen with just one server, or all servers?

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • DickW Member

    Originally posted by JimMatthews:

    We know about one cause of stalls at the end of transfers, and we put a fix for that problem in Fetch 5.2. So if you aren't using 5.2 (or 5.2.1), I would strongly recommend upgrading.

    If you still see stalls with 5.2.1 I'd be interested in hearing more.

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Jim, I'm using 5.2.1 on a Mac Pro with Tiger and transfers stall when over about 9-10 mB. They indicate a complete 100% write and never close. I'm having the same issue with Dreamweaver CS3. My hosting server uses Server 2003 with the latest mods. I've tried everything but completely disabling the 10X firewall to no avail. The problem does not exist when I use Windows XP FTP on the same computer in a Parallels virtual OS. I'm stumped.

    [This message has been edited by ScottMcGuire (edited 09-12-2007).]

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi DickW,

    We're sorry you're seeing this problem as well. We'd like some more information.

    To clarify, do you see the problem with transfers smaller than 9-10 MB, or is just the large transfers?

    If you could try a transfer of that length with the Mac OS X firewall disabled, that would be useful. Since the risk of an attack on a Mac is low, it should be safe to leave it off for the length of such a transfer.

    Finally, seeing a transcript of such a transfer would be helpful. To do this:

    After you try to transfer and the transfer stalls, choose Fetch Transcript from the Window menu, copy the entire contents of the transcript window, and paste them into a reply to this message.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • DickW Member

    Scott, I'll be happy to do that if you tell me how to turn off the Mac Firewall. I know it's in sharing but how do I disable it completely?

    I did try a couple other programs. Transmit works, sort-of. It seems to upload without really closing properly. There's a FireFTP extension for Firefox, which works without a problem. It takes several seconds to close a file, but it seems to solve my problem. Files smaller than 8-9 mB seem to work OK, but larger files stall. Not sure why the control data drops. Is there any way to ping that layer periodically so it stays adtive? I have checked with my server guy and there are no timers except when the link is completely inactive. He increase the idle timer to 600 seconds with no difference.

    Dick

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Dick,

    Thanks for the additional information, and for helping us look into this further.

    To completely disable the firewall, go to the Mac OS X System Preferences, click the Sharing icon, click the Firewall tab, and click the Stop button if it says "Firewall On." If it says "Firewall Off" then it is completely disabled.

    The fact that most of the Mac FTP clients that you've tried are experiencing the same problem suggests this may be a problem caused by the firewall or your router, if you have one. Are you connected directly to your cable/DSL modem, or are you connected using wireless or using a router to share the connection between several different computers?

    It's interesting to hear that FireFTP worked; once we have the Fetch transcript, we may look into getting a transcript from it to compare.

    Have you tried checking the "Keep connections alive" preference in the General pane of the Fetch Preferences? I don't think it's likely to solve the problem, but it's worth trying just to be sure.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGure
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • DickW Member

    Same situation without a firewall and with the "keep connections alive" checked.

    Dick

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Dick,

    Thanks for the additional info. Could you please post a Fetch transcript from a failed upload?

    To do this:

    After you try to transfer and the transfer stalls, choose Fetch Transcript from the Window menu, copy the entire contents of the transcript window, and paste them into a reply to this message.

    Or, if you haven't quit Fetch since your last upload attempt, you can just send the transcript from it.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • hollaender Member

    Hi,

    I just purchased Fetch and getting more and more dissapointed...

    I also have problems with uploading larger files an stalled uploads. my firewall is off and I am on Macosx 10.4.10.

    the filesize is 17.3 MB and the upload gets stalled after 2,5 MB...

    here is my fetch transcript:

    Fetch 5.3 (5D161) Intel running on Mac OS X 10.4.10 (8R2232) Intel English
    StuffIt Engine 0x820, StuffIt SDK Version 10.1.1b1
    Partial serial FETCH5X001-V69M-DDK5 T
    Connecting to stefanjoachimmueller.de port 21 (Mac OS X firewall is off) (15.11.2007 1:06:36 Uhr)
    Connected to 82.165.92.156 port 21 (15.11.2007 1:06:36 Uhr)
    220 FTP Server ready.
    USER u40349938
    331 Password required for u40349938
    PASS
    230 User u40349938 logged in
    SYST
    215 UNIX Type: L8
    PWD
    257 "/" is the current directory
    MACB ENABLE
    500 MACB not understood
    CWD mp3_music/technoid/
    250 CWD command successful
    PWD
    257 "/mp3_music/technoid" is the current directory
    TYPE A
    200 Type set to A
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (82,165,92,156,234,118).
    Making data connection to 82.165.92.156 port 60022
    LIST -al
    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
    drwxr-xr-x 2 u40349938 ftpusers 4096 Nov 15 00:44 .
    drwxr-xr-x 3 u40349938 ftpusers 4096 Nov 15 00:28 ..
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 22407921 Nov 15 00:35 Beta Music 2003.mp3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 3305472 Nov 15 00:45 Dubby Tuesday 320.mp3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 5111808 Nov 15 00:45 calling amsterdam 320.mp3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 2572288 Nov 15 01:02 one on one 320.mp3
    226 Transfer complete
    TYPE I
    200 Type set to I
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (82,165,92,156,205,67).
    Making data connection to 82.165.92.156 port 52547
    STOR one on one 320.mp3
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for one on one 320.mp3
    Update check skipped at 15.11.2007 01:08 (next check after 15.11.2007 16:29)

    Any help appreciated...

    kind regards,

    stefan

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • hollaender Member

    Hi,

    I just purchased Fetch and getting more and more dissapointed...

    I also have problems with uploading larger files an stalled uploads. my firewall is off and I am on Macosx 10.4.10.

    the filesize is 17.3 MB and the upload gets stalled after 2,5 MB...

    here is my fetch transcript:

    Fetch 5.3 (5D161) Intel running on Mac OS X 10.4.10 (8R2232) Intel English
    StuffIt Engine 0x820, StuffIt SDK Version 10.1.1b1
    Partial serial FETCH5X001-V69M-DDK5 T
    Connecting to stefanjoachimmueller.de port 21 (Mac OS X firewall is off) (15.11.2007 1:06:36 Uhr)
    Connected to 82.165.92.156 port 21 (15.11.2007 1:06:36 Uhr)
    220 FTP Server ready.
    USER u40349938
    331 Password required for u40349938
    PASS
    230 User u40349938 logged in
    SYST
    215 UNIX Type: L8
    PWD
    257 "/" is the current directory
    MACB ENABLE
    500 MACB not understood
    CWD mp3_music/technoid/
    250 CWD command successful
    PWD
    257 "/mp3_music/technoid" is the current directory
    TYPE A
    200 Type set to A
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (82,165,92,156,234,118).
    Making data connection to 82.165.92.156 port 60022
    LIST -al
    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
    drwxr-xr-x 2 u40349938 ftpusers 4096 Nov 15 00:44 .
    drwxr-xr-x 3 u40349938 ftpusers 4096 Nov 15 00:28 ..
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 22407921 Nov 15 00:35 Beta Music 2003.mp3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 3305472 Nov 15 00:45 Dubby Tuesday 320.mp3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 5111808 Nov 15 00:45 calling amsterdam 320.mp3
    -rw-r--r-- 1 u40349938 ftpusers 2572288 Nov 15 01:02 one on one 320.mp3
    226 Transfer complete
    TYPE I
    200 Type set to I
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (82,165,92,156,205,67).
    Making data connection to 82.165.92.156 port 52547
    STOR one on one 320.mp3
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for one on one 320.mp3
    Update check skipped at 15.11.2007 01:08 (next check after 15.11.2007 16:29)

    Any help appreciated...

    kind regards,

    stefan

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • vsheregar Member

    Originally posted by DickW:

    Scott, I'll be happy to do that if you tell me how to turn off the Mac Firewall. I know it's in sharing but how do I disable it completely?

    I did try a couple other programs. Transmit works, sort-of. It seems to upload without really closing properly. There's a FireFTP extension for Firefox, which works without a problem. It takes several seconds to close a file, but it seems to solve my problem. Files smaller than 8-9 mB seem to work OK, but larger files stall. Not sure why the control data drops. Is there any way to ping that layer periodically so it stays adtive? I have checked with my server guy and there are no timers except when the link is completely inactive. He increase the idle timer to 600 seconds with no difference.

    Dick

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • pgalloway Member

    Any resolution to this topic? Like others posts, small files transfer fine. Large files stall at 100% every time.

    It's discouraging to see that Fetch administration has not resolved this.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi pgalloway,

    We try to help resolve this problem for every user who reports it.

    Stalled transfers can be caused by many things: problems with servers, out of space on the server, problems with routers, or problems with the local network. Unfortunately, most often these causes are not under the control of Fetch, or any other FTP software; but we are familiar with the symptoms and we can suggest solutions.

    Because there are so many possible causes, we need more information before we can give useful advice - and if you will look back, we have requested more information from every user who asked about this problem. In some cases, we have not received additional information; in other cases, we have helped folks through other channels, such as our support email address, which is why you do not see a conclusion here.

    If there was a single, simple solution to stalled uploads, believe me, we would be posting about it and doing it!

    Anyway, we would - as you might guess! - like more information so we can help you with your problem.

    You say that you always have stalls when transferring large files. Do the transfers always stall at about the same place, that is, after the same amount of data has been uploaded?

    And if you could send us a transcript from one of the stalls, that would be very helpful as well. To do this:

    * Quit Fetch, if it's running.
    * Open Fetch again.
    * Connect to your server.
    * Try uploading one of the problem files again.
    * After the transfer stalls, 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.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • pgalloway Member

    Here is the transcript from a an attempted upload today. The first file was small and uploaded fine. The second stalled at the end.

    Fetch 5.3 (5D161) Intel running on Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31) Intel English
    StuffIt Engine 0x820, StuffIt SDK Version 10.1.1b1
    Partial serial FETCH5X002-Q3PE-TVHK T
    Connecting to www.cips214.net port 21 (Mac OS X firewall is allowing connections) (6/5/08 6:43:17 PM)
    Connected to 75.127.242.58 port 21 (6/5/08 6:43:17 PM)
    220 Microsoft FTP Service
    USER AutoMAssoc
    331 Password required for AutoMAssoc.
    PASS
    230-Customer Metric Solutions, LLC
    230 User AutoMAssoc logged in.
    SYST
    215 Windows_NT
    PWD
    257 "/" is current directory.
    MACB ENABLE
    500 'MACB ENABLE': command not understood
    PWD
    257 "/" is current directory.
    TYPE A
    200 Type set to A.
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (75,127,242,58,19,137).
    Making data connection to 75.127.242.58 port 5001
    LIST -al
    125 Data connection already open; Transfer starting.
    06-02-08 01:18PM 32768 •Open & Backup Files.fp7
    06-02-08 01:19PM 184320 •Open Menu fp7.fp7
    06-02-08 01:25PM <dir> BAK
    06-02-08 01:31PM 38707200 CAMCO.BAK
    226 Transfer complete.
    TYPE I
    200 Type set to I.
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (75,127,242,58,19,138).
    Making data connection to 75.127.242.58 port 5002
    STOR IFS.BAK
    125 Data connection already open; Transfer starting.
    226 Transfer complete.
    Transfer of IFS.BAK (544,768 bytes, 544,768 bytes/sec, 0:01 elapsed) completed at 6/5/08 6:43:21 PM
    PASV
    227 Entering Passive Mode (75,127,242,58,19,139).
    Making data connection to 75.127.242.58 port 5003
    STOR CAMCO.BAK
    125 Data connection already open; Transfer starting.
    Update check skipped at 06/05/2008 06:45 PM (next check after 06/08/2008 04:19 PM)

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi pgalloway,

    Thanks for the transcript.

    I've sent a follow-up via email to the email address you registered for the message board with. Please let us know if you do not receive the email.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • tallthom Member

    Is there any update on this problem since last June (2008)? I am still seeing stalled transfers at or around 90% when I attempt to download (for example) a directory of photos from a server.

    Sometimes the transfers go through, and sometimes they stall (frustrating because restarting the transfer does not resume downloading the entire directory).

    I'm using Fetch 5.3

    [This message has been edited by tallthom (edited 02-14-2009).]

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi tallthom,

    This thread has been about stalls with uploads, not downloads.

    But as with stalled uploads, stalled downloads can be caused by many things: problems with servers, problems with routers, or problems with the local network. Unfortunately, these causes are not under the control of Fetch, or any other FTP software, so there isn't really one single solution. We can try to suggest workarounds or areas to investigate.

    Do you always experience the stalls when downloading from one server, and not others? Or do you have the same problems when downloading from any server?

    One thing to try is restart your network equipment - both your router and your cable/DSL modem. We find this sometimes fixes stalls.

    If that doesn't help, we recommend that you try out Fetch's Mirror command.

    The Mirror command lets you associate a folder on the server (the one with the files you're trying to download) with a folder on your Macintosh. Once you've done that, you can tell Fetch to mirror the contents of the remote folder to the local folder.

    Fetch will compare the contents of the remote and local folders, and only download new or changed files. This means that files that have already been downloaded successfully won't be downloaded again. If your first attempt to mirror the folder stops before all the files are downloaded, you can tell Fetch to mirror again, and the next attempt will pick up where the last one left off, instead of starting from the beginning again. And after mirroring a few times, all your files will be downloaded.

    See the Mirror window topic in Fetch Help (or click the link here) for more information about mirroring.

    Please let us know if you have further questions.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

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