Huge delay with ftp

I use Macromedia "Contribute" as a web editor. It takes the edits and
automatically publishes them to my RedHat Linux server, using FTP info that
I provide. I'm ftp'ing in from another Windows PC. It has always worked
like a charm. Lately however, it refuses to connect, just saying there was
a problem connecting. Basically, it seems to time out after about 20
seconds or so. If I connect with WSFTP, it does connect, but I notice it
takes about 40 seconds to a minute to connect. Connection used to be pretty
much instantaneous.

I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers seems to
have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.

Any idea what could be going on here?

-Dave

On 2005-03-14, David Ewer <dewer@n_o_s_p_a_m93.corporateimpact.ns.ca> wrote:

> ... I notice it takes about 40 seconds to a minute to connect.
> Connection used to be pretty much instantaneous.
>
> I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers seems to
> have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
> connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.
>
> Any idea what could be going on here?

Have you looked at the logs on the Red Hat server? Is ftpd running
from inetd or equivalent, or is it running as a daemon? If you try
to connect to the box from a completely different network location
(say from home) what's the delay?

How about traceroute? How long is the delay on pinging the server?

My goal here is to figure out whether the delay is in the network or
the server.
--
Carl Fink (E-Mail Removed)
Ask me about I-Con 24, April 8-10, 2005
http://iconsf.org

David Ewer wrote:
> I use Macromedia "Contribute" as a web editor. It takes the edits and
> automatically publishes them to my RedHat Linux server, using FTP info that
> I provide. I'm ftp'ing in from another Windows PC. It has always worked
> like a charm. Lately however, it refuses to connect, just saying there was
> a problem connecting. Basically, it seems to time out after about 20
> seconds or so. If I connect with WSFTP, it does connect, but I notice it
> takes about 40 seconds to a minute to connect. Connection used to be pretty
> much instantaneous.
>
> I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers seems to
> have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
> connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.
>
> Any idea what could be going on here?
>
> -Dave

I had problems like this once. How did I fix it? I changed my FTP
Daemon. RedHat comes with ProFTPD by default (I think... Correct me if
wrong); I installed PureFTPD and it worked like a charm. A major
increase in speed.

Hope this helps,
Scott

In article <NZ5Zd.32823$ZO2.28655@edtnps84>,
"David Ewer" <dewer@n_o_s_p_a_m93.corporateimpact.ns.ca> writes:
> I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers seems to
> have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
> connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.

Obvious suggestion - have you checked the DNS configuration? If one end or
the other is trying to use a name server that's been taken down or is
otherwise unreachable, that would explain it.

--
Peter Greenwood (E-Mail Removed)
http://www.pgid.co.uk
+44 1253 821678

It seems to be network related. I just called a friend and had him ftp in
via a DOS prompt, and the server immediately responded with a prompt to
enter the user name. On my own system, it waits about 35 seconds or so. I
have recently placed my own PC (not the Linux server) behind a firewall,
using a Linus 4-port router. I didn't think the firewall in the router
could be causing this problem, since my connection is out-going (or so I
thought), but I guess it is. Are there ports I should be opening on the
router?

-Dave

"Carl Fink" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 2005-03-14, David Ewer <dewer@n_o_s_p_a_m93.corporateimpact.ns.ca>
wrote:
>
> > ... I notice it takes about 40 seconds to a minute to connect.
> > Connection used to be pretty much instantaneous.
> >
> > I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers seems
to
> > have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
> > connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.
> >
> > Any idea what could be going on here?
>
> Have you looked at the logs on the Red Hat server? Is ftpd running
> from inetd or equivalent, or is it running as a daemon? If you try
> to connect to the box from a completely different network location
> (say from home) what's the delay?
>
> How about traceroute? How long is the delay on pinging the server?
>
> My goal here is to figure out whether the delay is in the network or
> the server.
> --
> Carl Fink (E-Mail Removed)
> Ask me about I-Con 24, April 8-10, 2005
> http://iconsf.org

Got it. I turned off the firewall, and that fixed the problem. Strange
that it took longer to connect, rather than just refusing the connection
altogether.

Thanks for your help.
-Dave

"David Ewer" <dewer@n_o_s_p_a_m93.corporateimpact.ns.ca> wrote in message
news:JIeZd.56937$fc4.48298@edtnps89...
> It seems to be network related. I just called a friend and had him ftp in
> via a DOS prompt, and the server immediately responded with a prompt to
> enter the user name. On my own system, it waits about 35 seconds or so.
I
> have recently placed my own PC (not the Linux server) behind a firewall,
> using a Linus 4-port router. I didn't think the firewall in the router
> could be causing this problem, since my connection is out-going (or so I
> thought), but I guess it is. Are there ports I should be opening on the
> router?
>
> -Dave
>
> "Carl Fink" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > On 2005-03-14, David Ewer <dewer@n_o_s_p_a_m93.corporateimpact.ns.ca>
> wrote:
> >
> > > ... I notice it takes about 40 seconds to a minute to connect.
> > > Connection used to be pretty much instantaneous.
> > >
> > > I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers
seems
> to
> > > have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
> > > connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.
> > >
> > > Any idea what could be going on here?
> >
> > Have you looked at the logs on the Red Hat server? Is ftpd running
> > from inetd or equivalent, or is it running as a daemon? If you try
> > to connect to the box from a completely different network location
> > (say from home) what's the delay?
> >
> > How about traceroute? How long is the delay on pinging the server?
> >
> > My goal here is to figure out whether the delay is in the network or
> > the server.
> > --
> > Carl Fink (E-Mail Removed)
> > Ask me about I-Con 24, April 8-10, 2005
> > http://iconsf.org
>
>

On 2005-03-14, David Ewer <dewer@n_o_s_p_a_m93.corporateimpact.ns.ca> wrote:
> Got it. I turned off the firewall, and that fixed the problem. Strange
> that it took longer to connect, rather than just refusing the connection
> altogether.

I suspect Peter Greenwell nailed it. Your "router" is probably
serving as DNS server, and it's slow.

Easy to test: try connecting via IP address instead of name.
--
Carl Fink (E-Mail Removed)
Ask me about I-Con 24, April 8-10, 2005
http://iconsf.org

David Ewer wrote:
> I use Macromedia "Contribute" as a web editor. It takes the edits and
> automatically publishes them to my RedHat Linux server, using FTP info that
> I provide. I'm ftp'ing in from another Windows PC. It has always worked
> like a charm. Lately however, it refuses to connect, just saying there was
> a problem connecting. Basically, it seems to time out after about 20
> seconds or so. If I connect with WSFTP, it does connect, but I notice it
> takes about 40 seconds to a minute to connect. Connection used to be pretty
> much instantaneous.
>
> I have researched this long connection delay, and all the answers seems to
> have to do with DNS and reverse lookup issues and such. However, I'm
> connecting to a static IP address, not a domain name.
>
> Any idea what could be going on here?
>


Many ftp server under linux do an ident request to the client
( tcp 113 )
if you have a firewall on your client or between you and the server that drop
ident paquet you have delay

There is many solutions to correct this

Authorize tcp ident on your client

Changing your ftp server for a version that doesn't do that

modifying ftp configuration to doesn't do that

for proftpd for example do in /etc/proftpd.conf

# Do not perform ident
IdentLookups off


or like i do on my server
filtering output ident request on server

iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 113 -m state --state NEW -j REJECT
--reject-with tcp-reset

Sincerely
--
Weill Philippe - Administrateur Systeme et Reseaux