Handling "Connection reset by peer" error in an FTP client

java ftp connection-reset
user517491 picture user517491 · Jul 13, 2012 · Viewed 26.1k times · Source

I have a Java program that calculates some stats daily and uploads the file on a server through FTP. However, I get "Connection reset by peer" errors way too often.

Since I cannot change the server configurations, what are the recommended ways to handle such types of errors? How can I make sure that the whole file is transferred to the server?

Answer

A B picture A B · Jul 13, 2012

The message "Connection reset by peer" means the server closed the connection. The cause could be a TCP timeout, a lack of disk space, ETC.

  1. Try transferring the file using FTP without using Java, using a command line utility.
    If the same problem occurs, it is definitely not the Java program.

  • Make sure the network is not sensitive to the size of file(s) being transferred.

  • Make sure the server is not blocking connections from your client after it has already made "N" previous connections or after a certain length of time, E.G. 20 minutes.

  • See if your client can establish a persistent TCP connection using another protocol: SSH, etc.
    If the problem occurs with the other protocol also, it's likely to be the network.

    • If you find the issue is caused by a timeout that would only happen if your connection was idle too long, then check this URL:

    FTP: "Connection reset by peer"

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