[Merged] FTP uploads intermittently fail

[Hodders]

Thanks for posting Kits....

The problem has been ongoing for probably the last 6 to 8 weeks.

Today I tried an FTP session to the same server from a friends ADSL account (using my firewall and a client) and as expected the process was flawless.

As far as I am concerned this means that the fault *has* to be with NTL's network.

Does anyone have any idea how I can talk to someone at NTL (number or name) who will be able to help me diagnose this ?

[ianbutty]

Has there been any further developments on this? I'm Manchester and I can no longer FTP to any of my (non-NTL) sites. The hosting company has confirmed that FTP trafic from other sources is reaching them, but not from me. HTTP, email etc all working fine.

[Hodders]

No, no further developments.....

But the more people that have the problem, the less likely the fault lies anywhere else than with NTL.....

Perhaps one of teh NTL bods that frequent these forums will add something to the questions I've posted above.

I've contacted NTL, but no-one there can really follow the discussions. To be fair I imagine that 99% of related to user misconfiguration and setup mistakes.

Can someone from NTL help here ?

To be honest I'm getting ready to get a freeview box and a BT line with ADSL....

[Hodders]

I've been trying to get the issues raised in the following thread sorted for the last month.....

NTL tech support refuse to admit there is a problem. "Citing well if one PC is working, it can't be us....."

The tests outlined in the thread imply heavily that it is nothing to do with my network.

Thread:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=20226

If I don't get this sorted by xmas, INTL are going to lose a TV, Phone and cable modem customer.

Where are these boxes you are having problems with located (give us some examples). There are still some routing issues on the internet in general (some of my us servers again lost sight of some uk ip ranges this morning).

There is nothing in that thread to indicate an ntl problem, so I'm not surprised they refuse to admit it.

[Neil]

You also didn't answer the question of whether the problem occured with out the Smoothwall router.

The best thing you can do is remove all your network stuff, & connect the modem direct to the PC & see if the problem re-occurs. If it doesn't at least you know the issue lies on your side, & if it does you know it's ntl's side.

You need to eliminate your own hardware/software before you start blaming ntl IMO.

[Edit]-I'm going to merge these 2 threads soon as we don't need 2 on the same subject.

[Hodders]

Originally Posted by rdhw

NTL don't proxy FTP. If it's only one of your LAN PCs affected, then you need to study the setup of that one PC carefully. If it is a Windows system, run HijackThis on it to see if there are any unexpected components present.

Thanks for answering...

But way back at the beginning I explained that the problem was not restricted to simply one PC..

I'll fill in some of the blanks...

1) The modem is a Surfboard 3100 ethernet modem going into a smoothwall based firewall.

2) Currently using passive FTP. May try using active FTP to see if that helps (I'll open up the ports from just the server in question).

3) Problem has only occurred in the last few (5 maybe) weeks.

4) Pinging the server always works with good <35ms delays.

5) I tried an FTP session to the same server from a friends ADSL account (using my firewall and my client) and as expected the process was flawless.

6) I have tried both linux and Windows clients, the symptoms are the same for both.

7) FTP to upload.ntlworld.com works fine - always. Even on a machine that is suffering a problem with getting to the server in question.

8) When the problem occurs FTP packets start to take up to 2 minutes to arrive at the server - all packets from any client not suffering the problem arrive within 30ms or so.

The bottom line is that strangeness is going on. Most strange is that when one client stops working for 30mins or so the others will all still work, until they fail and then behave as explained.

It sounds like some router somewhere is throwing a wobbly and waiting to time out and reset itself.......

[Hodders]

Originally Posted by Paul M

There is nothing in that thread to indicate an ntl problem, so I'm not surprised they refuse to admit it.

Thanks for posting Paul:

I would say that a combination of:

points 3 & 7 above imply that it is not my network, 5 especially implies that it is an NTL thing with FTP sites outside their network.

However, I have spent hours working on this.... If you think my conclusions are false, please say so and outline your reasoning as to where you think the problem lies....

Cheers

[Chris W]

so have you connected one of your pc's direct to your cable modem and tried the ftp from there?

[Hodders]

Originally Posted by Neil

You also didn't answer the question of whether the problem occured with out the Smoothwall router.

The best thing you can do is remove all your network stuff, & connect the modem direct to the PC & see if the problem re-occurs. If it doesn't at least you know the issue lies on your side, & if it does you know it's ntl's side.

You need to eliminate your own hardware/software before you start blaming ntl IMO.

[Edit]-I'm going to merge these 2 threads soon as we don't need 2 on the same subject.

Neil, thanks, point 5 above implies that my own hard/software seems to be OK.

When connected to ADSL, the whole process works fine. Whenever I am trying to debug something like this I always try to change one thing at a time...

Changing *just* the broadband connection and finding that the problem goes away really does imply that something to do with the broadband is the issue here.

I must admit intermittend problems like this are infuriating as they are so much harder to track down...

[threadbare]

Originally Posted by Hodders

Neil, thanks, point 5 above implies that my own hard/software seems to be OK.

When connected to ADSL, the whole process works fine. Whenever I am trying to debug something like this I always try to change one thing at a time...

Changing *just* the broadband connection and finding that the problem goes away really does imply that something to do with the broadband is the issue here.

I must admit intermittend problems like this are infuriating as they are so much harder to track down...

unless you do as Neil suggests you will never actually find out if it is your setup or ntl. As you can probably appreciate it is a process of elimination.

it is unlikey you will discover your solution to this problem unless you catually follow the advice of the (very knowledgable) forum members

[Hodders]

Ok Ok Ok !!!

I'll make an image of one of the clients and expose it unfiltered to the sesspit out there that is the internet...

Lets see what the XP2 firewall thinks of it all !

At least I can put the image back afterwards !

I'll let you know how I get on...

I know that I may have sounded short, but this problem has been infuriating for the last 6 weeks now - please rest assured that I *do* appreciate everyones help.

Cheers,

[Hodders]

Ok,

Tried the following setup:

Motorola Surfboard 3100 modem connected directly to:

a) A linux laptop
b) a winXP-SP2 desktop

Trying each in turn, both had the same problem....

"connection timed out" when trying to FTP to the remote server. After about 30 minutes the laptop was able to reconnect, after 30 minutes the desktop was still unable to reconnect.

Both were still able to FTP to upload.ntlworld.com.

During this period the server was running fine (I accessed it from another office using VNC to run a FTP client from a PC at the other office).

Rebooting both the cable modem and the client did not make the problem go away.

Please can someone come up with some ideas.....

The only conclusion I can reach is that for some reason after some 2 years of perfect service, the NTL network has been changed or is casuing these problems.

Anybody ?

[Hodders]

I have just tried throttling the upload bandwidth.

Whilst uploading to upload.ntlworld.com ping times went from:

21/151/315 (no throttling) to 20/40/82 (with throttling)

I'm now going to try uploading to see if that has helped....