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Still experiencing FTP issues ...

kaspencer
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Still experiencing FTP issues ...

I don't wish to sound nasty, but what is going on with the FTP login?

This failed me a few days ago, so I missed my automatic retrieval of my Web Stat logs owing to an automated login failure. I received a comment that it might take four (yes: 4 !) weeks to sort it out.Then, this morning at the usual 1:30am the process failed again with the same symptoms.

Surely I am not the only one top find this unacceptable. Now, Plusnet support how would you react to this: can I please ask you to note that I have had a Payment Failure Issue, and unfortunately I will be unable to pay you for four weeks.

I know what you'd say in answer to that - you'd be upset. So can we get some proper resources in place to solve these ongoing and repeated problems eh?

Kenneth Spencer

38 REPLIES 38
bobpullen
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Are you talking about access to the Madasafish FTP servers?

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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martynculling
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

I'm getting FTP connection failed for users.freenetname.co.uk which certainly worked for a few months after I transferred*.

I realise my website access route might well  be old, but I see no guide to setting it up so I'm unable to try another login.

*Bob knows all this, but Freenetname was bought by Madasafish who were then bought by Plusnet. The old FTP access settings carried on working with no change.

 

 

bobpullen
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

The current FTP issue will affect all of the Madasafish 'VISPs', including Freenetname, Globalnet, IC24, Totalise etc.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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Chris
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

The current FTP issue with MAAF accounts is on the service status page here: http://www.madasafish.com/support/service-status.html?action=messages&ispservice_id=webspace

Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
martynculling
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Thanks - after the end of Madasafish as an ISP, I wasn't thinking this was still valid.

kaspencer
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Thankyou Bob ...

... no, I'm not on Madasafish. I am using the PlusNet FTP service, and have done since 2005.

Here is a clue for you to pass on about what is happening:

 - I use a crontabbed script (crontabbed on a local machine) to log into ftp.plus.net at 0130 each day

 - the script then gets my log files and they are processed locally.

On just about half of the logins, the process fails at your end, and the following happens:

 - the local process runs, attempts but returns immediately without a successful log in. Hence, no web stats data!

The following morning, I have to log in by hand and retrieve the logs. BUT I notice that my FTP client cannot get the files at first login: it reports that the files have been deleted, are not available or are in use, and I am disconnected from the FTP server (if I was ever connected). Then, if I login for a second attempt, I am asked whether I wish to continue the transfer (the one I attempted but failed at the first login). Although that fails with the same message, if I try again on a second login it succeeds.

This setup has been in use for a decade, and only fails when PlusNet's servers, or connectivity fail. So it's not me!

You definitely have a fault with your FTP service. I just wish you'd sort it out!

In hope,

Kenneth Spencer

[Kenneth A Spencer                                                                                                                          ]
[Publications (computing/virtual organs etc etc): ............................... http://lulu.com/kaspencer ]

bobpullen
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

@kaspencer, I suspected from your previous post that you were talking about the Plusnet service. Given that's the case, this confuses me:

kaspencer wrote:
This failed me a few days ago, so I missed my automatic retrieval of my Web Stat logs owing to an automated login failure. I received a comment that it might take four (yes: 4 !) weeks to sort it out.

There is no acknowledged problem affecting the Plusnet servers. I suspect whoever advised you of the four week thing was confusing the issue with the Madasafish FTP problem.

So you're saying the 1.30 login attempt fails pretty much every other day? Is there any debugging you can add to your script to help determine what's happening when things fail? i.e. what response is being returned by our servers (if any)?

Bob Pullen
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kaspencer
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Thanks Bob ...

... although I have had my fair share of issues with retrieving my web stat logs over the years, generally it works. And it was working fine until a few days ago, when I noticed the failure to get the logs.

If the Plus FTP server were to return an error, it would be put into my report file, but it doesn't. It seems that the FTP login fails silently, so the rest of the script goes into thin air.

But as mentioned it doesn't happen every day. You will see from my records that I put in a Support Ticket the first day that this happened. But the next day it worked without issue. Then the third day it failed again (which prompted my short rant). Then it worked, then it failed again (last night).

As mentioned, when I attempt to recover the logs manually, that failed too at first. But a second login evoked the response given in my earlier post - namely an invitation to attempt to continue the original failed download, which fails. But the second login does allow the files to be retrieved on the second repeat attempt.

I don't suppose that this is anything to do with the FTP client used (unless you have changed anything at your end), but the automated daily script  runs on a Raspberry Pi 2 under Raspbian - this has worked with every generation of the RPi faultlessly since February 2013, and with my Windows 2003 R2 server for eight years before that. The manual recovery is performed on a Windows Vista Ultimate x64 PC using the WS-FTP client. But as all this has worked I cannot imagine anything is wrong at my end. The fact that there are issues across two completely different client platforms also somewhat tells me its not my end that has developed the fault!

So, I hope that's sufficient information to help with progress. I'll let you know what happens tonight. If it works I'll leave it alone for tomorrow, and then remove the lines for the second login (see previous post) from the script in a day or two.

Best wishes,

Ken

[Kenneth A Spencer                                                                                                                          ]
[Publications (computing/virtual organs etc etc): ............................... http://lulu.com/kaspencer ]

bobpullen
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

We have changed things this side. The servers are behind new load balancers. Monitoring looks good though, so I need a replicable problem really before I can start digging into things.

Bob Pullen
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kaspencer
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Thanks Bob ....

... well there is definitely a problem, and from my end it is certainly replicable. If the issue continues to occur, I will publish the script (which is simple enough) and you and others can crontab it yourselves if you need more evidence.

I'll let you know in the morning ...

Ken

[Kenneth A Spencer                                                                                                                          ]
[Publications (computing/virtual organs etc etc): ............................... http://lulu.com/kaspencer ]

kaspencer
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Thanks Bob.

The error on automated retrieval occurred again last night even though I added a login and a logout to the script. I cannot easily capture the full message detail evoked during the automated script. But this morning I carried out a manual transfer, and was able to retrieve all the messages issued by your system during the failure. I have put them together and show them below.

Please note the following:
 - These errors are completely reproducible
 - They are occurring on scripts that have worked for years, and on two different systems.
 - I would like them investigated and corrected or advice issued if I need to do anything at my end, because what I am trying to do is completely reasonable in a normal working FTP service, and has worked previously for years anyway.

Below is the conversation when I attempt a manual transfer following the failure of the automated script.

On manual FTP download:

  1. Login via FTP client seems to proceed without error, eliciting the usual Plus Net FTP conversation:
    connecting to 212.159.8.91:21
    Connected to 212.159.8.91 port 21
    220-PLEASE NOTE: If you have a non-subscription account you
    220-will only be able to login to this ftp server if you are
    220-dialled into our network.
    220-
    220-A Maximum of 4 concurrent connections are allowed to this
    220-server, each session is limited to 256KB/s downloads.
    220-
    220 Plus.Net FTP Server #1 ready
    USER kaspencer
    331 Password required for kaspencer
    PASS (hidden)
    230 User kaspencer logged in
    PWD
    257 "/" is the current directory
    Host type (I): UNIX (standard)
    PORT 10,0,0,34,193,98
    200 PORT command successful
    LIST
    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
    Received 124 bytes in 0.1 secs, (10.00 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete

  2. Change to the Logs Directory
    CWD logs
    250 CWD command successful
    PWD
    257 "/logs" is the current directory
    PORT 10,0,0,34,193,99
    200 PORT command successful
    LIST
    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
    Received 10110 bytes in 0.6 secs, (165.26 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete
    which succeeds.

  3. Then I select three files for transfer. But something goes wrong, and the Port fails.
    receiving www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz as www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz (1 of 3)
    Saving restart info for KASPlusNet - www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz
    TYPE I
    PORT 10,0,0,34,193,128
    ! Failed "port":
    which fails.

  4. The connection has died:
    CDUP
    ! Send error: connection aborted
    ! Receive error: connection aborted
    CWD ..
    ! Send error: connection aborted
    ! Receive error: connection aborted

  5. After logging in again, my FTP client issues the message:
    Do you want to attempt to resume the transfer of '/logs/www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz'?
    Clicking on YES evokes the message:
    Transfer Failed. Did you delete the files?
    Responding to that with NO evokes the response:
    The file could not be opened and may be locked by another process. Try again.

  6. Trying the file selection and transfer once more actually succeeds without error. Here is the complete monologue of the successful retry:
    connecting to 212.159.8.91:21
    Connected to 212.159.8.91 port 21
    220-PLEASE NOTE: If you have a non-subscription account you
    220-will only be able to login to this ftp server if you are
    220-dialled into our network.
    220-
    220-A Maximum of 4 concurrent connections are allowed to this
    220-server, each session is limited to 256KB/s downloads.
    220-
    220 Plus.Net FTP Server #1 ready
    USER kaspencer
    331 Password required for kaspencer
    PASS (hidden)
    230 User kaspencer logged in
    PWD
    257 "/" is the current directory
    Host type (I): UNIX (standard)
    PORT 10,0,0,34,195,37
    200 PORT command successful
    LIST
    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
    Received 124 bytes in 0.1 secs, (10.00 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete
    CWD logs
    250 CWD command successful
    PWD
    257 "/logs" is the current directory
    PORT 10,0,0,34,195,38
    200 PORT command successful
    LIST
    150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
    Received 10110 bytes in 0.1 secs, (980.00 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete
    receiving www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz as www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz (1 of 3)
    Saving restart info for KASPlusNet - www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz
    TYPE I
    200 Type set to I
    PORT 10,0,0,34,195,42
    200 PORT command successful
    RETR www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for www.atworth.org.uk.0.gz (7478 bytes)
    Received 7478 bytes in 0.1 secs, (730.00 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete
    receiving www.bathford.org.uk.0.gz as www.bathford.org.uk.0.gz (2 of 3)
    Saving restart info for KASPlusNet - www.bathford.org.uk.0.gz
    PORT 10,0,0,34,195,43
    200 PORT command successful
    RETR www.bathford.org.uk.0.gz
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for www.bathford.org.uk.0.gz (6203 bytes)
    Received 6203 bytes in 0.1 secs, (600.00 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete
    receiving www.kaspencer.com.0.gz as www.kaspencer.com.0.gz (3 of 3)
    Saving restart info for KASPlusNet - www.kaspencer.com.0.gz
    PORT 10,0,0,34,195,44
    200 PORT command successful
    RETR www.kaspencer.com.0.gz
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for www.kaspencer.com.0.gz (4599 bytes)
    Received 4599 bytes in 0.1 secs, (440.00 Kbps), transfer succeeded
    226 Transfer complete

Plainly something is seriously wrong, and as these are completely reproducible, please do investigate and correct your systems!

Kenneth Spencer

[Kenneth A Spencer                                                                                                                          ]
[Publications (computing/virtual organs etc etc): ............................... http://lulu.com/kaspencer ]

 

 

kaspencer
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Registered: ‎08-01-2008

Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

OK chaps, here is an update:

At 0130 this morning (20160424) the scripts ran as usual. And without error.

So: Bob, has someone sorted this issue out? I am living in hope but I'll let you know tomorrow whether or not it all goes satisfactorily. I haven't signed the issue off as yet, as it has worked before for a day and then packed up the next day.

But here's hoping.

Bob - you've gone quiet ... any comments on yesterday's detailed posting?

Thanks,

Ken

[Kenneth A Spencer                                                                                                                          ]
[Publications (computing/virtual organs etc etc): ............................... http://lulu.com/kaspencer ]

 

bobpullen
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...


@kaspencer wrote:

Bob - you've gone quiet ... any comments on yesterday's detailed posting?

It was very helpful, thanks.

I'm looking to use it as a basis to raise a formal problem for investigation.

Don't suppose you remember roughly when that manual transfer was attempted?


 

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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kaspencer
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Re: Still experiencing FTP issues ...

Thanks Bob ...

As far as I can tell, the manual sessions in my previous posting were at about 9:00am on 23rd April. The time is approximate.

However, I have been sitting quietly for the last two days because the automated downloads have actually functioned correctly so I haven't had to do any more downloads. So I am waiting anxiously to see what happens at 1:30 this morning. I'll post again later with news.

It seems to me as though someone somewhere has made some corrections, as it can't otherwise just suddenly start to work when there have been no changes at my end.

Thanks

Ken

[Kenneth A Spencer                                                                                                                          ]
[Publications (computing/virtual organs etc etc): ............................... http://lulu.com/kaspencer ]