Fetch Softworks

drib and drab downloads (10 posts)

• Started 18 years ago by stuckmic
• Latest reply 18 years ago from Scott McGuire

• stuckmic Member

  Hi All,

  I'm suffering the "dribs and drabs" download problem again.

  I'm not sure what the nature of the problem is. I have a cable connection. When i download, there is an initial burst, the file appears to have been downloaded, then the stream begins tapering off ... starting at, say, 1,500 bytes per sec ... then it starts counting down ... 1,499 bytes/sec, 1,498 bytes/sec, etc.. It can take me 5 minutes to download a 10k image!

  My server responds: "All the server use the same uplink and they all run ProFTP 1.2.10."

  I use MAC OS9.2, Fetch V4.0.3.

  Is there a setting in fetch i should check/uncheck?

  This is the most frustrating thing. I don't know whether my host is incompetent and i should just change hosts or if fetch has some option i should have clicked.

  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  Paul

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Paul,

  That does sound pretty bad.

  The first thing I'd try is connecting with Fetch to ftp.fetchsoftworks.com, which you can connect to anonymously. Go to the "example" directory, and there are several graphic files in there that you can try downloading. Or you can try downloading the Fetch application.

  Then connect to your host's FTP site and try downloading some things.

  If things download fast from the Fetch Softworks FTP site, but at the same time they download slowly from your host's site, it may be your host's fault.

  If all downloads are slow, we can investigate further. Let us know.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• stuckmic Member

  Originally posted by ScottMcGuire:

  Hi Paul,

  That does sound pretty bad.

  The first thing I'd try is connecting with Fetch to ftp.fetchsoftworks.com, which you can connect to anonymously. Go to the "example" directory, and there are several graphic files in there that you can try downloading. Or you can try downloading the Fetch application.

  Then connect to your host's FTP site and try downloading some things.

  If things download fast from the Fetch Softworks FTP site, but at the same time they download slowly from your host's site, it may be your host's fault.

  If all downloads are slow, we can investigate further. Let us know.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Hi Scott,

  I think i figured it out.

  I think it's the difference between FTP and SFTP. Here on my older mac i use FETCH v4.0.3 ... which, as far as i know, doesn't have SFTP capabilities ... or does it?

  On my newer mac ... the G5 ... i use the newest version of FETCH with SFTP and it never has a problem.

  Any suggestions for this old mac?

  Paul

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Paul,

  No, Fetch 4.0.3 does not have SFTP support, sorry. And Fetch 5 does not run on Mac OS 9, as you're probably aware.

  One product that supports SFTP on Mac OS 9 is MacSFTP, which you can get from www.macssh.com .

  If downloading via FTP and SFTP from the same server produce very different download speeds, it definitely sounds like a server issue (not that that helps you much).

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• jerry Member

  I'm also experiencing the same problem and its not a server issue. I know because I used smartftp and it downloads without a problem. However, as we're downloading mac files I can't use smartftp

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Jerry,

  Sorry to hear you're having problems too. Could you give us some more details about the problem so we can try to figure out what's going on?

  Do you see slow downloads just with one server, or with all servers?

  If just the one server, do you have always get slow downloads with that server, or just sometimes?

  And, do the downloads get slow just at the end of the download, or in the middle of the download?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• stuckmic Member

  Originally posted by jerry:

  I'm also experiencing the same problem and its not a server issue. I know because I used smartftp and it downloads without a problem. However, as we're downloading mac files I can't use smartftp

  "smartftp"? Hmmmm .... where can i get that? I tried MacSFTP but it screws up the permissions when i upload.

  Paul

  Posted 18 years ago #

• stuckmic Member

  Scott McGuire,

  If i may jump in ... it's hard to nail down. I was on the phone with my server guy the other night and he was watching my attempts to download.

  I have several sites on the same server. On one site the download/upload screams along without a hitch. I hit a different site (same server) and the "dribs and drabs" begin. I get a sudden burst of download equal to the size of the file i'm trying to get, then the "bytes/sec" begins counting down slooowly ... 1200/bytes, 1150/bytes, 1140/bytes ... it can take 5 minutes to download a 10k graphic.

  My server people are completely stumped. He figures it has to do with not being SFTP. Sure enough, i tried an SFTP program and everything screamed along ... but i don't like this other program i'm using, it doesn't recognize different permission setting for different file types.

  Paul

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Originally posted by stuckmic:

  "smartftp"? Hmmmm .... where can i get that? I tried MacSFTP but it screws up the permissions when i upload.

  SmartFTP appears to be a Windows-only FTP client. You can find it at http://www.smartftp.com/ .

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Paul,

  Thanks for the additional information on your problem. I don't think we have any suggestions at this time for why FTP experiences problems and SFTP does not, but we'll think about it.

  Sorry to hear that MacSFTP does not do the right things with permissions.

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 18 years ago #