Corrupt downloads?

mikegi · #1 06-14-2005, 07:18 PM

Is anyone else seeing corrupt downloads of .exe files? My site routinely delivered corrupted .exe files earlier this month and it is doing it again this week. I've opened a ticket but was wondering if it anyone else was having this problem.

I can't detect a pattern to the corruption. You can download a file 5 times before you get a clean copy. Several of my customers have reported the problem in the last few days. I've had to resort to sending them .exe updates in email. The most common problem is that the download is incomplete (eg. 500KB of a 700KB file, no error reported in MSIE).

The phpbb downtime (mysql errors) were one thing, but delivering corrupted downloads is a showstopper with me.

Thanks,
Mike

knuckler · #2 06-16-2005, 10:08 PM

We've had two users have problems with incomplete/corrupt zip file downloads. The problems have been going on for at least a week. They have tried different browsers (IE and Firefox), clearing the browser cache before attempting to download again, and it didn't solve it for either user.

The server hosting our site is gator14.

mikegi · #3 06-16-2005, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knuckler

We've had two users have problems with incomplete/corrupt zip file downloads. The problems have been going on for at least a week. They have tried different browsers (IE and Firefox), clearing the browser cache before attempting to download again, and it didn't solve it for either user.

The server hosting our site is gator14.

My wild-a**ed guess is that this is a network hardware problem. You're seeing corruption on a different server (gator14 while I'm on gator8). The problem is this corruption isn't reproducible, it just starts happening for a while then stops. Maybe some leg of the internet outside HG is failing and the download only gets routed through it occasionally. I don't know.

Mike

knuckler · #4 06-24-2005, 09:24 PM

Well, more and more people are reporting problems downloading from our site. So far they've all been dialup users, except for one person using DSL.

http://www.bbscleagues.us/current/files/BBSC_CL.zip is an example of what people are trying to download. It's a zip file a few megs in size, about 4 MB at present.

***GatorJay*** · #5 06-24-2005, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knuckler

Well, more and more people are reporting problems downloading from our site. So far they've all been dialup users, except for one person using DSL.

http://www.bbscleagues.us/current/files/BBSC_CL.zip is an example of what people are trying to download. It's a zip file a few megs in size, about 4 MB at present.

Just downloaded that with no problems, unzipped it fine. I've not heard of problems like this other than this post. Have you emailed support about this issue yet?

amartins · #6 06-25-2005, 05:02 AM

Worked fine for me too. Maybe some proxy along the way to your other downloaders has a corrupted version?

gtgeorge · #7 06-25-2005, 06:35 AM

Add one more good d'load and unzip

TeeJa · #8 06-25-2005, 07:39 AM

NP downloading here either. Not corrupted at all.

I have a lot of files on one of my sites that are for download, some as big as 75 meg. Once in a while I get feedback on a corrupt file, and it always is from someone on a dialup or AOL/CS. Downloading files will have glitches due to the connection to the server from the visitor, and rarely from the server.

mikegi · #9 06-26-2005, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeeJa

NP downloading here either. Not corrupted at all.

I have a lot of files on one of my sites that are for download, some as big as 75 meg. Once in a while I get feedback on a corrupt file, and it always is from someone on a dialup or AOL/CS. Downloading files will have glitches due to the connection to the server from the visitor, and rarely from the server.

The corruption isn't consistent. Most of the time it works fines then it will fail repeatedly. The corruption isn't limited to AOL/CS/POTS, I've seen it on my cable modem and several non-AOL users have seen it. This is immaterial now that I've moved to a dedicated server, just waiting for dns stuff to propagate. The corruption, for whatever reason, was the final straw.

Mike

TeeJa · #10 06-26-2005, 12:13 PM

Quote:

This is immaterial now that I've moved to a dedicated server,

Yes, as I did. Now more control, no dropped mail, and no complaints from clients about access.
The extra cost is worth it, and peace of mind about server is worth it.
Interesting to see how the corrupt download issue turns out, keep me informed.

knuckler · #11 07-25-2005, 09:10 PM

Just to update, some dialup users are still having problems with file downloads being interrupted before they're complete. All along I have thought that it is not a HostGator problem, and I still think that. I remember plenty of instances when I was on dialup over the years where I had incomplete downloads from all sorts of different servers and sites. GetRight is a dialup user's best friend.