FTP frustration

[James]

Hi

FTP problem:

Once a week I download my site from Fasthosts via FTP so I have a back up. I need to do this as Coppermine creates its own folder structure when you upload photos. If I did not back this up and there was a fatal server crash I would have to upload each picture manually to restore the site :o

The problem I have is that when I start downloading the site using Smart FTP it works fine at first but then just stops. I then have to work out which files it has retrieved and select the ones it hasn't and start the download again - I have to repeat this several times to get the entire site and as the site grows this will become more of a problem.

I downloaded Core FTP (http://www.coreftp.com) to see if another FTP client would solve it but it did the same thing (it also crashed continually - this software is not recommended!).

So - why does this happen? Is it Fasthosts denying me a large continuous FTP session? Is is Smart FTP?

Cheers.

[David]

I have exactly the same problem with the Fasthosts/SmartFTP combination. I am afraid to say that the problem is likely to be with Fasthosts. I don't get the same problem with my other host (Clook) and SmartFTP and I have also found that the problem is not consistent. Many times it works just fine but often it does exactly what you describe. :(

I suggest you put in a call to ExtremeSupport and ask them for suggestions to your backup problem. I'd be very interested to hear what they have to say.

Edit **

The error message I get is:

Connection closed. Server timeout.

...and this would seem to indicate a problem a Fasthosts and not SmartFTP.

[Tom]

As you may recall, I gave up work on MySQL when I found Webmerge. The conclusion I came to before doing this was that the best plan would be to use Navicat (http://www.navicat.com/) as a front-end and then upload (instead of download) the database. Henry is planning a website and intends to do this. He first had a go with MyPHPAdmin - and says Navicat is a lot simpler. Would this get round your problems with backing up databases?

[James]

Hi Tom,

It's not the database that we are having problems with. Backing up the database is simple using Phpmyadmin or Mysqladmin.

We're talking about the actual files that make up the site: the HTML, PHP and JPEGs.

David, I will log a call with support and let you know what they say.

Cheers for now.