Am I correct

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A customer of mine is trying to send me files via FTP but at the moment his full back up procedure is running and he can't connect to the ftp server to send me pages. Am I right in thinking this because the backup is running?

 

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Presumably he normally FTPs data at this time, while a backup is running, or is this a one off that the two things happen at the same time?

I suppose it depends whether the backup facility/process locks files down while it is backing up.

If not, unless there's a bandwidth issue, I would have said he should be able to upload the files.

 

USually he FTPs the files earlier in the day when the backup isn't running and also the FTP client I use is receiving files from other customers so it's not my end thats at fault.

I was presuming that if his servers are all being backed (with the files that he is going to send me) then the backup would either cause a connection issue because of a loss of bandwidth or something else.

 

I take it he backs up locally, as opposed to some remote location? You could always ask him to pause the backup, if it's urgent, to see if that gets the FTP connection up and running again.

I take it he has checked that his Internet connection is up and running?

 

It shouldnt affect the transfer of files (shaddow copy and all presuming it's XP or Server 2003).. and you say he isnt connecting, that sounds more like an authentication issue.. what do the logs say?

 

I suppose whether he has set as ASCII or binary could cause him issues too... he may be rushing it, given he normally sends them earlier...

 

he says he can get on the internet, when I asked him if he was typing in the correct password etc he says he never dow that, its a simple click & he logs on automatically.

He just told me he is going to a meeting and will be back afterwards the back up should have finished by that time so I will see what happens then.

Its is XP with server 2003, I am sure its got to do with backup because I can log into the ftp system and so can other customers. This guy is about as technically minded as an ant so its quite hard to explain it to him, it took him 8 months to stop using the ISDN and start using FTP.

 

its the only thing thats happening that is different, thats why I thought it must be that. He has gone to a meeting so I have to wait till he comes back now.

 

another vote for no backup issue. At most, the backup could lock the files being transferred (whilst they in particular are being backed up), preventing him from copying them - but even thats unlikely, since you can usually copy files that are locked by other processes.

Besides, he isnt getting connected to the ftp, thats nothing to do with the backup. The backup could slow down the OS, making it take much longer to establish the connection. And I suppose if it was running at a very high priority, its possible that it could stall the pc so much that the connection times out before being established. But if thats the case, then the entire PC would be like a dog, and he'd be unlikely to be able to do anything at all.

 

It definitely sounds like a 'chair-keyboard interface' issue...

It's the 'simple click and he logs on' that worries me. I wonder if he (or someone else) may have modified settings on whichever program/app he uses to FTP.

 

He did say the first time he tried it was a timeout error message, but after that it was just can't connect error message.

Edit: Giddy I already tried to explain to him that just using a simple click is a bad idea but the guys about as clever as bucket full of **** so thats not going to work. And I don't know what he uses to get to my FTP client I presume its IE.

 

If it's just a can't connect message, it sounds more like an Internet routing issue or something along those lines.. he probably will get on later.

 

I know you would have mate...

Can I assume that the FTP site is your company's? If so, do you know if other individuals needing to uploading files need a username and password?

 

hopefully or tommorow could be a long day. Usually the guy send 3 quarters of his Newspaper tonight which I will put out then there's only a handfull of pages to come tommorw so it can print just after lunch time. It isn't a very long print run but your expecting 30 pages out the night before and only 26 to come the next day then it should be done and printed quickly but its a different story if your waiting for 56 pages on the actuall print day to be output on-time.

 

The FTP client is ours. What actually happens is a customer uploads his pages to host called WAMNET via FTP we then use our FTP client to grab the pages from the host and download the pages. All our external contract work is done this way.

I am receiving pages now from other customers, if the WAMNET host was down then they would not be able to put pages to us either. So it must be an issue at his end.

 

Yeah he did, I asked him to do that first but it made no difference