Fetch Softworks

v5.6 connection problem (8 posts)

• Started 13 years ago by rob campbell
• Latest reply 13 years ago from Scott McGuire

• rob campbell Member

  I am having a problem connecting with Fetch. I have copied and pasted the transcript as follows:
  ---
  Fetch 5.6 (5F64) Intel running on Mac OS X 10.6.4 (10F2056) Intel English
  StuffIt Engine 0x820, StuffIt SDK Version 10.1.1b1
  Partial serial FETCH55001-A46S-59R8 T
  Connecting to ftp.consultcampbell.com port 21 (Mac OS X firewall is allowing connections) (9/22/10 1:02 PM)
  An FTP connection to “ftp.consultcampbell.com” could not be opened because the connection timed out. (There might be a problem with your network, or the server might not be responding.)
  --
  My cable network connection is via charter < via Airport; email works, web works, even phone works (I use Vonage).

  Chain of events was:

  All worked fine > old machine (Ti PB OS10.11.4) died > installed new iMac OS10.6 > used firewire to copy Fetch (5.5) from old mac > started Fetch > reinput serial number at request of Fetch > WORKED! > started putting in shortcuts to sites (by connecting and recording) > worked, 1, 2, 3, 4, times failed on 5th site, would not connect > updated Fetch to v5.6 > no joy

  I have tried the Fetch test shortcut and it works fine. I have contacted my server folks and there are no problems at their end, they tested ftp for me and it worked fine

  Any helkp would be very gratefully received!

  Thx again,

  rob

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Rob,

  I can confirm that the server does appear to be up and running.

  Sometimes glitches in your router or cable modem can prevent you from connecting to a certain site, even when all others work. If this is the case, restarting your network equipment can fix the problem. (I personally have this problem - some days, a site randomly stops working for me, and restarting the modem fixes it.)

  So I would recommend that you do the following and see if it fixes the problem:

  * Shut down your Mac.
  * Unplug (from the power) your router or wireless base station (if you have one; a router is a device for sharing your Internet connection with multiple computers).
  * Unplug (from the power) your cable/DSL modem.
  * Plug the cable/DSL modem back in, and wait about a minute for it to get completely started up.
  * Then plug the router or wireless base station back in, and wait another minute for it to start up.
  * Finally, start your Mac.

  Then try connecting and uploading to the problem server.

  Let us know if that fixes things or not, if not, we'll investigate further.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• rob campbell Member

  Thx Scott, followed your recommend to the letter, no joy!

  Tried my old PB machine with the old copy of Fetch 5.5- it was working previously and although is now basically dead(ish) I can squeeze a limited use out of it. Same problem on it... I am getting real fried with this. The common denominator seemed to be my ftp server, you tell me it is ok and the folk there tell me it is ok, indeed regular www. access is fine, so I have little doubts in this respect

  The only thing that has seemed to change over the last while (couple of weeks) is that my cable provider's (charter) service feels like it has diminished somewhat with regular outages on a daily basis- I will go to use the internet etc. or telephone (I use vonage via cable) and bang! no service. I unplug, I restart, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Trying to get service from these guys (charter) is like dealing with Jack-the-Ripper, there primary concern is to get you off the phone as soon as possible, so I am trying get as much info and detail as poss before making another call to them - I need to ask is it poss that they are to blame somewhere here?

  What about port 21? does it have any relevance? is it being blocked by charter (newly blocked)? - I ran a terminal test from iMac and there was ZERO response and a time-out to testing port 21

  Please if you can help, SAVE ME! ha!

  Anything you can suggest or try or provide by way of errors or test result that might identify the problem and who I need to get things working again would be wonderful

  Thx in advance

  Posted 13 years ago #

• rob campbell Member

  BTW I have two wi-fi boxes, my airport and the box that came from vonage (it doubles as a wifi), neither work with either machine. I have no internal network in place, my mac stands alone with no changes to standard settings

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Rob,

  Sorry that didn't help.

  To confirm before I write more: your Mac is connected directly to the cable modem, is that correct? Or is there a router in there someplace?

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• rob campbell Member

  WiFi connected via airport (primary) or via motorola vonage box (secondary option)

  Posted 13 years ago #

• rob campbell Member

  Problem solved!!! - thx Scott. My server folks at www.your-site.com did the business (highly recommended BTW). Changed from FTP to SFTP and changed host from ftp.[etc] to ssh.[etc]. seems to work great... eh, will let you know if it doesn't, but seems to be the solution

  Thx again

  Rob

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Rob,

  I'm glad to hear your hosting provider was able and willing to set you up for SFTP access and that seems to be working; that's definitely one way to solve the problem (and your password and data will be encrypted now, as a bonus).

  To answer some of your previous questions...

  Since the server is up and running, and you can connect to other FTP sites, yes, it's entirely possible something your Internet provider is doing is blocking access to ftp.consultcampbell.com via FTP (probably they're not blocking it intentionally, there's just some problem or configuration issue that's coincidentally causing it).

  Since you're using a wireless connection, it's also possible (but less likely) that the Airport is causing the problem. The way to determine that would be to connect your Mac directly to the cable modem; if you still couldn't connect when you did that, it would be a problem with your Internet provider and not your wireless base stations. But since you have another solution, you probably don't need to take that troubleshooting step.

  Port 21 is the standard FTP communication port - if your Internet provider was blocking it, no FTP connections would work, not just the one to one particular server. So no, I don't think it's being blocked.

  Please let us know if you have any further questions.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #