[UglyBunz]

OS: Windows XP SP2, from streamlined fresh install, no further patches (none available yet), registered
Firewall: Windows XP firewall with FlashFXP set in exceptions
FlashFXP: Version 3, build 1015, registered
Antivirus: AVG Free Edition V6.0.745, database 497
NAT: No, on static registered IP address
Router: Allied Telesyn AT-AR250E configured as router (no NAT, firewall, filters etc.) /29 registered IP pool
LAN: No, router configured for WAN only
Internet feed: 2048/256 ADSL

Note: I have previously used my router/net feed with FlashFXP 2.x with no problems to the remote servers I have since had problems with, so the problem appears to be a FlashFXP 3/XP SP2 interaction. Unfortunately I upgraded to FFXP 3 at the same time that I installed XP SP2!

Symptoms: When uploading MP3 files to different remote FTP servers, FlashFXP upload falls to 0bps on some files and eventually times out. On resume, after the rollback data has been uploaded, the upload chokes in exactly the same position as before. The upload choke ALWAYS occurs on the same files in the same position, regardless of which remote server I am sending to. The remote servers are mainly Serv-U, BSD FTPd, and NCFTPd. This is simple FTP, not FXP. Setting passive or port mode has no effect, nor does setting keep-alives. Disabling my AV software also has no effect. I cannot really disable my firewall, for obvious reasons!

This is completely consistent - it always occurs on the same files in the same places. I have not been able to try a different firewall yet, as my previous firewall (Kerio Personal Firewall) didn't seem to be very happy with SP2 (SSH sessions constantly timed out on me - the Windows firewall was disabled at the time. I have not experienced this SSH problem with the Windows firewall).

I have tried uploading the same MP3 files that I cannot upload with FlashFXP using the Windows command-line FTP in binary mode, and the transfers work successfully. So FTP transfers appear to be possible: the Windows firewall alone is not breaking these.

Workaround: This problem occurs with maybe 1 in 5 MP3 files: there are almost always one or two tracks in my queue that exhibit the problem and mess up the upload. So I have taken to compressing the MP3s into multi-segment RARs (10MB segments) with WinRAR 3. The RAR files seem to upload with no problems. I know there's no benefit to compressing MP3s, but I do it to transform the files, on the assumption that some data sequence within the MP3s (and probably common in MP3 files, judging from my experiences) is causing the transfers to break.

I can supply specimen files that always fail to upload via FlashFXP in my environment if required.

Here is a sample log file with some specific info edited out (the remote server is really Serv-U 4.1 with spoofed info):

WinSock 2.0 -- OpenSSL 0.9.7d 17 Mar 2004
[R] Connecting to x.x.x -> IP=y.y.y.y PORT=21
[R] Connected to x.x.x
[R] 220 BunnySoft FTPd V0.93c - © BunnySoft Inc.
[R] USER w
[R] 331 User name okay, need password.
[R] PASS (hidden)
[R] 230 User logged in, proceed.
[R] SYST
[R] 215 UNIX Type: L8
[R] FEAT
[R] 211-Extension supported
[R] MDTM
[R] MDTM YYYYMMDDHHMMSS[+-TZ] filename
[R] SIZE
[R] SITE PSWD;EXEC;SET;INDEX;ZONE;CHMOD;MSG
[R] REST STREAM
[R] 211 End
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:" is current directory.
[R] TYPE A
[R] 200 Type set to A.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,207
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] LIST -al
[R] 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
[R] 226 Transfer complete.
[R] List Complete: 1 KB in 0.42 seconds (3.0 KB/s)
[R] CWD upload
[R] 250 Directory changed to /d:/upload
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:/upload" is current directory.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,209
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] LIST -al
[R] 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
[R] 226 Transfer complete.
[R] List Complete: 906 bytes in 0.44 seconds (2.0 KB/s)
[R] CWD w
[R] 250 Directory changed to /d:/upload/w
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:/upload/w" is current directory.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,211
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] LIST -al
[R] 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
[R] 226 Transfer complete.
[R] List Complete: 429 bytes in 0.45 seconds (0.9 KB/s)

NOTE NOTE - the next entries are me renaming the same file that I successfully uploaded with Windows FTP (see later log)

[R] RNFR Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 350 File or directory exists, ready for destination name
[R] RNTO xFreeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 250 RNTO command successful.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,213
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] LIST -al
[R] 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
[R] 226 Transfer complete.
[R] List Complete: 430 bytes in 0.38 seconds (1.1 KB/s)
[R] TYPE I
[R] 200 Type set to I.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,215
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] STOR Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3.
[R] 426 Data connection closed, receive file Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3 aborted.
[R] Transfer Failed!
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,217
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] REST 2228224
[R] 350 Restarting at 2228224. Send STORE or RETRIEVE.
[R] STOR Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3.
[R] Connection lost: x.x.x
[R] Attempting to Reconnect.
[R] Connecting to x.x.x -> IP=y.y.y.y PORT=21 (attempt # 1)
[R] Connected to x.x.x
[R] 220 BunnySoft FTPd V0.93c - © BunnySoft Inc.
[R] USER w
[R] 331 User name okay, need password.
[R] PASS (hidden)
[R] 230 User logged in, proceed.
[R] SYST
[R] 215 UNIX Type: L8
[R] FEAT
[R] 211-Extension supported
[R] MDTM
[R] MDTM YYYYMMDDHHMMSS[+-TZ] filename
[R] SIZE
[R] SITE PSWD;EXEC;SET;INDEX;ZONE;CHMOD;MSG
[R] REST STREAM
[R] 211 End
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:" is current directory.
[R] CWD /d:/upload/w/
[R] 250 Directory changed to /d:/upload/w
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:/upload/w" is current directory.
[R] TYPE A
[R] 200 Type set to A.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,222
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] LIST -al
[R] 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
[R] 226 Transfer complete.
[R] List Complete: 511 bytes in 0.44 seconds (1.1 KB/s)
[R] TYPE I
[R] 200 Type set to I.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,224
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] REST 2228224
[R] 350 Restarting at 2228224. Send STORE or RETRIEVE.
[R] STOR Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3.
[R] Connection lost: x.x.x
[R] Attempting to Reconnect.
[R] Connecting to x.x.x -> IP=y.y.y.y PORT=21 (attempt # 1)
[R] Connected to x.x.x
[R] 220 BunnySoft FTPd V0.93c - © BunnySoft Inc.
[R] USER w
[R] 331 User name okay, need password.
[R] PASS (hidden)
[R] 230 User logged in, proceed.
[R] SYST
[R] 215 UNIX Type: L8
[R] FEAT
[R] 211-Extension supported
[R] MDTM
[R] MDTM YYYYMMDDHHMMSS[+-TZ] filename
[R] SIZE
[R] SITE PSWD;EXEC;SET;INDEX;ZONE;CHMOD;MSG
[R] REST STREAM
[R] 211 End
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:" is current directory.
[R] CWD /d:/upload/w/
[R] 250 Directory changed to /d:/upload/w
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:/upload/w" is current directory.
[R] List (cached)
[R] List Complete: 511 bytes in 0.08 seconds (6.4 KB/s)
[R] TYPE I
[R] 200 Type set to I.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,229
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] REST 2228224
[R] 350 Restarting at 2228224. Send STORE or RETRIEVE.
[R] STOR Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3.
[R] Connection lost: x.x.x
[R] Attempting to Reconnect.
[R] Connecting to x.x.x -> IP=y.y.y.y PORT=21 (attempt # 1)
[R] Connected to x.x.x
[R] 220 BunnySoft FTPd V0.93c - © BunnySoft Inc.
[R] USER w
[R] 331 User name okay, need password.
[R] PASS (hidden)
[R] 230 User logged in, proceed.
[R] SYST
[R] 215 UNIX Type: L8
[R] FEAT
[R] 211-Extension supported
[R] MDTM
[R] MDTM YYYYMMDDHHMMSS[+-TZ] filename
[R] SIZE
[R] SITE PSWD;EXEC;SET;INDEX;ZONE;CHMOD;MSG
[R] REST STREAM
[R] 211 End
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:" is current directory.
[R] CWD /d:/upload/w/
[R] 250 Directory changed to /d:/upload/w
[R] PWD
[R] 257 "/d:/upload/w" is current directory.
[R] List (cached)
[R] List Complete: 511 bytes in 0.08 seconds (6.4 KB/s)
[R] TYPE I
[R] 200 Type set to I.
[R] PORT z,z,z,z,7,234
[R] 200 PORT Command successful.
[R] REST 2228224
[R] 350 Restarting at 2228224. Send STORE or RETRIEVE.
[R] STOR Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3
[R] 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3.

Got fed up here! The timeouts means it takes quite some time to generate this amount of logfile.

Here's the same file being uploaded with Windows FTP (command line heaven!). I uploaded this file prior to the FFXP transfer logged above, hence the file rename in the above log:

ftp: 358 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 358000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> put "Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3"
200 PORT Command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for Freeform - 03 - Saigon.mp3.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 10897119 bytes sent in 454.47Seconds 23.98Kbytes/sec.
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye!

Note that I had to add Windows FTP to my Windows firewall exceptions in order to use it.

I intend to experiment with other firewalls shortly, as the Windows one is mainly outwards-looking and really offers next to no tweakability, so I'll follow up here with my experiences - whether things improve or not.

Thanks,
UglyBunz