Cumulus Support

My realtime text file is set to update every 5 seconds but recently it has started disappearing from my web space. When it is present it updates correctly every 5 seconds.
Any ideas anyone?
Cheers,
Laurie.

Try changing the Internet Settings/Sites/Options Web settings pane Delete before upload setting.

My guess would be that 5 seconds is way too short a time for your hosting service to carry out the necessary ftp functions, I would double it to 10 seconds and see if it improves.

If that doesn't work try going to 15 etc. until you get a stable upload. You have to remember that here in the UK unless you are on a fibre connection upload speeds are far slower than download speeds.

uncle_bob wrote:Try changing the Internet Settings/Sites/Options Web settings pane Delete before upload setting.

As well as unsetting that (if you have it set), try setting the 'rename' option. This is the best setting to use as it minimises the time when your realtime.txt is unavailable, but not all ftp servers support it; I would regard those as 'broken'.

Thank you all for your replies.

I am still having problems. The realtime.txt file stops updating randomly and intermittently.

Only the realtime file is affected all others ( index.htm etc.) are OK.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers,
Laurie.

Have you tried changing the upload times to 10sec?

While I agree that 5 seconds might not be long enough to upload the realtime.txt file and rename it, because of the inefficiency of the ftp protocol, if an upload is in progress when it's time for the next one, it doesn't try to start another upload, so it's effectively self-regulating, and changing from a 5-second interval to a 10-second interval is unlikely to stop the file "disappearing". There may be bugs, of course...

Turn on ftp logging and let it run until you see the problem. Then attach the realtimeftplog.txt file (zip it if it's very big; you can also delete it from time to time until you hit the problem). In the meanwhile, a screen shot of your internet settings would be useful, and a link to your web site.

While I agree that 5 seconds might not be long enough to upload the realtime.txt file and rename it, because of the inefficiency of the ftp protocol, if an upload is in progress when it's time for the next one, it doesn't try to start another upload, so it's effectively self-regulating, and changing from a 5-second interval to a 10-second interval is unlikely to stop the file "disappearing". There may be bugs, of course...

While I agree totally with you Steve, I have seen some Hosting services who detect the second request and terminate the first, so although FTP might not do it the Server setup may do it, just thought it worth a try.

Personally I think that anything under 30 seconds is a but pointless as what really changes in that time, but that as I say is a personal view.

Thank you,

Changing time to 10 or 15 secs makes no difference.

With ftp rename ticked realtime.txt does not update at all but realtime.txttmp does, with rename unticked realtime.txt does and realtime.txttmp does not.

http://heckmondwike-weather.magix.net/public/

Cheers,

Laurie

It sounds like your ftp server doesn't support 'rename'. The file will inevitably be unavailable for short periods as a result.

Repeatedly refreshing your realtime.txt shows it not updating occasionally for a while, both when visible and when not, so that suggests a problem with the connection to the server or the server itself. The realtimeftplog.txt file will show what's going on.