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ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

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    ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

    I've written a program to parse data & transfer to an ftp server. The program runs automatically from task scheduler & works perfectly until... the ftp server goes down. Then Alpha displays a box that says "could not login to server" and stops there. I've tried "on error" but it won't trap that error. I've tried hostavailable but it always returns true even when the ftp server is down.

    Anyone know how to trap this error or test to see if the ftp server is working? Needless to say I'm at a complete standstill until I can solve this last issue.

    Thx

    #2
    Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

    Are you using the full construction

    Result as C = FTP_PUT_FILE( ....

    You should be able to test the result variable and branch from there.
    Last edited by Stan Mathews; 02-09-2009, 01:17 PM.
    There can be only one.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

      Are you supplying the optional port number argument to hostavailable()? If not, it is testing to see if there is a server running on port 80. By specifying 21 (or whichever port your FTP server uses), you can specifically test to see if FTP is running.

      Lenny Forziati
      Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
      Alpha Software Corporation

      Comment


        #4
        Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

        Originally posted by Stan Mathews View Post
        Are you using the full construction

        Result as C = FTP_PUT_FILE( ....

        You should be able to test the result variable and branch from there.
        Unfortunately, the problem is the error box pops up & stops the script, so I can't get to test a result code.

        Lenny, yes I tried port 21 - it still returns true no matter if the server is up or not:

        c=hostavailable("192.168.0.40", 21)
        ? c
        = "T"

        The server is down but it still returns true - would be great if it worked.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

          Clyde, the default return value for hostavailable is false, so in order for it to tell you true, something on 192.168.0.40 is accepting a connection on port 21. Is something else using that port? How are you determining that the server is down?

          Lenny Forziati
          Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
          Alpha Software Corporation

          Comment


            #6
            Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

            Lenny,

            Correct me if I am wrong, but hostavailable will only tell you that there is a connection to the host and the optional port you give it is open, not that an ftp or http server is running?

            Bill
            Bill Griffin
            Parkell, Inc

            Comment


              #7
              Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

              hostavailable() connects to a host on the specified port. In order to succeed, something on the host must accept the remote connection.

              Typically the accept is done by a server process itself (the FTP server), but some systems have a daemon process which listens on specified ports and spawns the server on-demand. With this type of configuration, there is a possibility that the server process could be not running yet the connection would be accepted.

              Lenny Forziati
              Vice President, Internet Products and Technical Services
              Alpha Software Corporation

              Comment


                #8
                Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

                Originally posted by Lenny Forziati View Post
                Clyde, the default return value for hostavailable is false, so in order for it to tell you true, something on 192.168.0.40 is accepting a connection on port 21. Is something else using that port? How are you determining that the server is down?
                I take the server down manually & it is the only thing using port 21. If I use PortQry.exe to test it after I take it down, it shows NOT LISTENING. I set PortQry to run in a loop until it detects the port available and it shows NOT LISTENING until I restart the ftp server. Then it shows LISTENING & exits the loop. Maybe like Bill said, Alpha's detecting an open port (as in it's not blocked by the os) as opposed to actually detecting a connection to the server itself.

                If ftp_put_file would allow trapping the Could not login to server error, then this would be a non-issue as it could be used to loop the script until a connection could be established. But instead it pops up a msgbox effectively halting the script leaving it in limbo. Since it doesn't allow trapping I guess I'll have to find a work around.

                Thx
                Last edited by APFCClyde; 02-09-2009, 05:30 PM.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

                  Clyde,
                  Have you tried a different port?....have you tried a different computer? c=hostavailable("spock.serveftp.com", 21) works fine here for my FTP server--.F. when off and .T. when on.

                  In fact it shows your server as being .F. currently......
                  Mike
                  __________________________________________
                  It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
                  It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
                  Henry David Thoreau
                  __________________________________________



                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

                    I've found the problem - just have to figure out why.

                    I did a quick check by running hostavailable on my system
                    & it worked. All three systems are on the same local network.
                    Both versions of Alpha are the same. So, just for grins &
                    giggles, I turned off the firewall on the production system
                    & viola! it worked! So the firewall on that system
                    (Win XP Pro SP3) is fouling up the hostavailable command.
                    Alpha5 is set in exceptions.

                    Alpha is able to send via ftp fine as long as the ftp
                    server is up.

                    Anyone have ideas why that would be?
                    Last edited by APFCClyde; 02-10-2009, 11:33 AM.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

                      Since I'm still researching the firewall problem, I had to get this working, so I've found a quick workaround and am posting it here in case it might be useful to anyone:

                      Microsoft has a command line utility called portqry.exe available here:

                      http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/d...displaylang=en

                      I put this in a bat file like so:

                      :Top
                      @echo off
                      c:\portqryv2\portqry -n 192.168.0.40 -e 21

                      @if errorlevel != 0 goto Top

                      exit

                      which runs using sys_shell_wait to test the ftp server. As you can see it loops continuously until the server is available at which time it would exit and continue the Alpha processing. As the machine on which the ftp server resides is a production machine, I would know right away & would be resetting it should it be down, so the bat file wouldn't run long before the ftp server was back up.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: ftp_put_file error when ftp server down

                        Clyde,

                        Thanks for addressing this issue and being so persistent. I too, was having this error and was beginning to believe it was all in my head. The FTP commands need to be rewritten, hopefully soon. But in the meantime this has solved my multiple box pop-up problems!

                        Thanks again!

                        Charlie

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