Uploads and RCN

quisr

I've been knocking this problem around unsuccessfully since September 16th, mostly in private e-mails with Smugmug support. Here's the story. If nothing else it's an entertaining horror trip. I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry.

Back on 9/15 I tried to upload a batch of about 50 jpgs onto my Smugmug site. The photos are about 2-3MB each. I have been a member for several years and probably upload stuff every month or couple of months. Anyway, the upload starts and then chokes after a few hundred KB. No matter what I try the problem persist and does to this point (11 days later). The upload creates this error message: "java.net.SocketException: Software caused connection abort: socket write error." If you search this site you'll see this one comes up occasionally. And actually, when I checked my old e-mail exchanges with Smugmug support I had the problem back in early October 2006. On that occasion support was unable to solve the problem but it disappeared after a few days.


Working with Smugmug support, I did all the usual stuff and a few more things besides, including the following: I ran DSLreports tests. I ran traceroutes. None of these tests was particularly revealing. I tried using both Firefox and Internet Explorer. I used every combination of available browser and browser-based upload system available. I tried other uploaders. I tried a different computer using Suse Linux 10.2 instead on my regular W2K box. I shut-off the firewall. I rebooted the computer. I rebooted cable modem. I rebooted the router. I renewed the released and renewed the IP from the modem. I updated Java. I uninstalled Java. I reinstalled an earlier version of Java. And so on. At the end of all this I think we concluded that the problem wasn't with Smugmug or my system but somewhere in between (although I do wonder about the Java upload system...)

Later on I tried to upload to other sites Goggle Photos, Flickr, Kodak Gallery (was Ofoto). I can't upload to any of them. Big file uploads (e.g. Powerpoint presentations) onto Goggle Docs also appear to fail. Small files, a few hundred KB, are okay. So there is definitely something more going on here.

The interesting thing is at the same time initially was trying to upload to Smugmug back on 9/15 I did upload a 100MB to 150MB of jpgs onto another site, a UK site called Photobox. (Their uploader also uses Java but different upload program.) The files just fly over the connection. I have repeated uploading a test file to Photobox periodically ever since and there is never a problem. Note also that when I ran a traceroute to photobox it timed-out--makes me think that traceroute data doesn't mean much. Note also that I can ftp large photos onto the web site that comes with my broadband Internet connection.

I decided to contact my ISP. My friend who runs a large online business, suspects the ISP is throttling bandwidth (note I'm a low bandwidth user--this is the only stuff I've uploaded since early July). I e-mailed them and they e-mailed me a toll free support number. I end up talking to someone in NC who I could barely understand. I actually thought she is at a foreign call center but she insists she was in NC. I explained the problem. Her response: "try uploading smaller photos" (got to keep everything under the 200KB limit!). When this fails to impress me she said this was a Smugmug problem and I should contact their support, totally ignoring that I've just told here about all the stuff I've done with Smugmug support to isolate the problem. At this point the ISP has run no diagnostic or other tests or asked me any information about my home network and computer setup. My response: Okay you are obviously clueless about computers, why don't you hand me over to a more senior support person or let me talk to your supervisor? Her response: you have to hang-up and call the toll free number again. Me: But I might get you or someone similiar again? Her: That's all I can do. I have no idea which call center you might get or who will pick up. End of conversation. Me to myself: Do I really want to roll the dice again? I E-mail a complaint to their e-mail support about this horrible experience. Their response (this is quoted verbatim from the e-mail): "Dear Customer, This is Alex and thank you again for contacting the Email Support Staff. We are happy to provide you with the exceptional customer service you deserve. In response to your recent email, I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. We do not support uploading images." Ugh! "WE DO NOT SUPPORT UPLOADING OF IMAGES". This is from RCN, a broadband cable company that according to their web blurb: "...has more than 1 million customer connections in the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. metropolitan markets." My response (I couldn't help the sarcasm): "What's your business plan and when do you plan to discontinue e-mail and web browsing?" This was too hot for Alex so I got passed to Christopher who comes back with (again, this is pasted from the e-mail with no editing): "Have you try to used the Face book to put your pictures in this is a free site? Have you try the 10 mb of free space we give you in ftp.rcn.com site. Unfortunately the upload of picture we don't support." Great, take a look at the three pictures I took on my recent vacation at rcn.com! Is this for real? I feel like I woke up in some strange new world and not very pleasant world. I just can't believe An ISP serving a million plus customers in many of largest cities in the US blocks uploads of 3MB jpgs--not ten or a hundred, Ican't even upload one--or apparently any size of file over a few hundred KB to American sites. Seriously, is this a business plan for going out of business or what? Any other RCN customers out there having upload problems?

And how do web companies like Smugmug feel about ISPs denying them access to their customers?

I suspect I may be going back to Verizon or Comcast (although not exactly starry-eyed about either of those ISPs either; just a matter of how can they be worse?).


Alan.

DavidTO

Unbelievable. I would sever my connection entirely rather than give them one more dime of my money. And I'd write the president of the company.

But, then again, I'm a hothead!

quisr

DavidTO wrote:

Unbelievable. I would sever my connection entirely rather than give them one more dime of my money. And I'd write the president of the company.

Exactly, I just sent them an e-mail: fix the problem or I'm getting a new ISP.

My neighbor also uses RCN so thought I check if I could upload my photos from her PC (different account, different home network, etc.), a little experiment to see if they are throttling others as well. Browser loads up. I can see Google and other sites but Smugmug won't load. Went back to my house and the home page loads fine. Ugh.

Andy

Let us know how you are making out with them, okay?

anderiv

quisr wrote:

Exactly, I just sent them an e-mail: fix the problem or I'm getting a new ISP.

My neighbor also uses RCN so thought I check if I could upload my photos from her PC (different account, different home network, etc.), a little experiment to see if they are throttling others as well. Browser loads up. I can see Google and other sites but Smugmug won't load. Went back to my house and the home page loads fine. Ugh.

quisr - Well this certainly sucks for you. This may be beyond what you're willing to do, but you mentioned SUSE linux, so you must a decent amount of technical chops. Have you thought about proxying your uploads through either an SSH tunnel or using another anonymizing service like TOR? It sucks that you'd have to go to these lengths to upload pictures, but doing this may just do the trick until RCN fixes the issue or you get a new ISP. If you used TOR or an SSH tunnel proxy, your uploads would be encrypted and RCN wouldn't be able to muck around with them like they have been.

If you'd like help setting either of these up, feel free to shoot me a PM or email.

-Erik

cabbey

You might try asking over here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rcn There's at least one RCN network tech that reads that board, I suspect three or four. I've often been able to get better problem resolution through the charter techs that lurk in the dslreports forum for charter than I have through the official phone number.

cabbey

anderiv wrote:

quisr - Well this certainly sucks for you. This may be beyond what you're willing to do, but you mentioned SUSE linux, so you must a decent amount of technical chops. Have you thought about proxying your uploads through either an SSH tunnel or using another anonymizing service like TOR? It sucks that you'd have to go to these lengths to upload pictures, but doing this may just do the trick until RCN fixes the issue or you get a new ISP. If you used TOR or an SSH tunnel proxy, your uploads would be encrypted and RCN wouldn't be able to muck around with them like they have been.

If you'd like help setting either of these up, feel free to shoot me a PM or email.

-Erik

Depending on what form of brain damage the RCN network is running under, that might not work either. However, a rate limited connection might. It would be a pretty sad solution though.

quisr

Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's an update on what happened since my last post. I did try to use some proxy services but didn't get anything to work. I tried Anonymizer and that didn't work. I didn't try Tor but have experimented it a little in the past and found it horribly slow. At some point I may give mysecureISP a shot.

I did eventually manage to upload seventy-seven 2 to 3MB photos using the "Olde faithful" uploader. This worked if, once the upload page appeared, I typed an "s" after "http" and reloaded to get an encryptied upload. This trick didn't appear to work with any of the other uploaders. Of course my ISP may decide that they are going to block https connections to various sites at some point. This trick also allowed me to upload large Powerpoint files onto Google Docs, something that wouldn't work before.

If I get a chance I'm going to follow-up on the suggestion to post a comment on the DSLReports forum. RCN never did respond to my ultimatum to fix the problem or I get a new provider so that's my next move. I think I'm able to get Verizon FiOS so that's probably what I'll try next. As RCN also provides my phone line, they are going to lose that account into the bargain.