FTP Publishing - September 2008

This month, we continue to see reports of several frequent symptoms, causing much anguish in bloggers who publish their blogs by FTP. The well known

Your publish is taking longer than expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here.

and

ConnectException: Connection timed out.

and a variant of the latter

FTPConnectionClosedException: Connection closed without indication.

But this month, there is hope. Several workarounds for these symptoms have been discovered by various relieved bloggers.

• Change the Blogger setting for FTP Server.
• Ensure that the host server is setup to support PASV FTP.
• Ensure that your firewall IP address filter is up to date.

In several cases, bloggers have found use of the domain name, as opposed to the host server IP address, in the blog (Settings - Publishing - ) "FTP Server" setting, to resolve the problem. In one case, the reverse was true - changing from the server name (domain name?) to an IP address provided relief from the problem noted. It's possible that checking with the host server support team, and verifying the correct setting, may provide help here.

If your blog is hosted on a shared hosting service, you'll have to use the domain name rather than an IP address. If you use the IP address of the server, the FTP service on the server will try to publish your blog to the default space in the FTP service. On a shared hosting service, your blog will probably not be the default. You'll either get an explicit "Security Violation" (name / password checked immediately), or "Your publish is taking longer than expected" (name / password checked with data stream).

I suspect that this change is necessitated by a change in the host configuration. GoDaddy, who is one of the hosting services in question, has been making server configuration changes in recent months, and it's possible that other hosting services have been doing the same.

• Something Is Broken: FTP publishing fritzed on certain domains (GoDaddy)
• Publishing Trouble: FTP Trouble to Personal domain (HostRocket)

In other cases, the support staff for the host server made changes in the firewalls protecting the host servers, and resolved the problem. In one case, Blogger started using Passive FTP. Passive FTP, identified in FTP logs with the "PASV" command, is easier to configure (and secure) at the client end (ie, Blogger), but is harder to support at the host end. In one case, Network Solutions staff required several weeks of troubleshooting before settling on this configuration change.

• Publishing Trouble: Possible Solution for FTP Publishing Problems (Network Solutions)
• Something Is Broken: FTP publishing fritzed on certain domains (self hosted)

If you are currently experiencing either of the noted symptoms, making the mentioned changes may resolve the problem. Trying either change is surely better than simply reporting the problem to Blogger and sitting around waiting for them to resolve the issues on their own, while your blog grows stale.

And in yet other cases, some host firewalls use IP Address filtering, sourced from a list provided by Blogger. Not all Blogger documentation, including the list used for the IP address filter, is 100% up to date.

And of course you should also continue to keep aware of the many general network issues that can also cause problems with FTP Publishing.

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