FTP Problem

[McTedo]

First off, my site is www.mctedoprogramming.com, and my ftp server is ftp03.powweb.com, and I use the SmartFTP client.

A common error which I encounter is:
421 Timeout (no new data for 900 seconds)
Server Closed Connection
Transfer failed.

This only happens when I am uploading data, and it doesn't matter whether I have uploaded data in the past 900 seconds or not. In fact, I can get this error even if I haven't been logged on for 900 seconds.

It is really frustrating as I currently have 2.11MB of files for MyBB PR2 to upload, and I have not yet finished and have had the error around 4 times so far.

Other times I can get the same error but I get "no activity for 1800 seconds", but I have been changing directories and sometimes uploading files in those past 1800 seconds.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[Croc Hunter]

Turn Passive mode on and check that Keep Alive is on. It's normaly on by default, in case you disabled it, go to Tools> Settings, Connection> Keep Alive and alter the settings. Also raise the Timeout setting to... well as high as you can. Additionally If you have a firewall try with it disabled.

The server is closing you out after 15mins of inactiity. You can 'ping' or send harmless commands like List and Add to keep the connection open. That's what Keep Alive does. Unless your firewall or router is trapping the command.

[McTedo]

Passive Mode was on already, and Keep Alive sends a NOOP every 45 seconds. I have, however, upped the Timeout to 10,000 seconds (I think that should be plently ;)).

My Firewall is a combination of Windows Firewall, which shouldn't block it, and Router Hardware firewall, which again shouldn't be blocking it. I do get the responses from the command come through from the server.

[McTedo]

Nope, unfortunatly this hasn't solved the problem...

[McTedo]

I don't know how to do this in SmartFTP unforunatly...

[YvetteKuhns]

I have been having problems uploading images from 5 to 50 k to ftp07 only. There was a problem posted for a few hours on one day, but this problem has been happening for weeks only for Mick's website. I upload to several websites on different ftp servers on PowWeb as well as other web hosts and this is the only one having a problem. And I think it is the only one I am handling on ftp07.

I tried uploading one image at a time instead of groups, but the 50 k files would get up to 80% uploaded, then time out. Eventually, I would get them uploaded after NUMEROUS tries. Are there too many people uploading at one time on specific servers at specific times?

[shomizu9]

2 questions (they may sound dumb, but I assure you from past experience that they are relevant :) ):

- what is your connection method (to the internet)?
- have you tried a 2nd ftp client?

[McTedo]

1) I have a 1 MBPS ADSL connection to the net (through my wireless router)
2) No, mainly because SmartFTP was fine originally and is only now a bit dodgy, and I don't know of any other free one (you don't really get the same results with webftp.powweb.com)

[Croc Hunter]

Check that your router (probably a linksys) allows port 21 access.
FileZilla is a good free FTP program.

[McTedo]

Yes, my router (3com), does allow port 21. FileZilla worked perfectly, I uploaded over 100 files, no problems. It is a shame because SmartFTP looks nicer, but the ability of FileZilla to create a queue for upload by default is brilliant - plus there are no connection errors.

Thanks everybody for their help :)