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Reget error

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November 7, 2013 - 11:53am
#1
sztrida
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Reget error

Hi,

I am regularly experience problems with updates.
Majority of updates are processed fine, but some of them behaves like this:
- download starts fine
- download process almost goes to end, indicates 100%, but actual downloaded size is 2-5kbytes smaller than indicated to finish
- download keeps trying, but missing data does not arrive, only doneload speed decreases
- finally it gives up, and says Error: Reget error during the download if xxxx.paf.exe

Repeating the process does not help.
I am using it in Hungarian lang.

Currently I experiencing it with the following apps:

- GIMP Portable 2.8.8
- LibreOffice portable 4.1.3
- Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 25.0
- VLC Portable 2.1.0

Please advise how to fix it (obvioulsy I can circumvert the problem by downloading the paf.exe files independently and install, but I'd like to figure out the real cause of this effect.)
Unfortunately I did not find any log file to describe theprocess

Thx,

Sztrida

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November 7, 2013 - 11:59am
John T. Haller
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Big File + Bad Antivirus

This can happen with a larger file and a poorly implemented antivirus that scans downloads. Essentially, the antivirus locks the file preventing it from fully downloading. There's nothing we can do about it on our end, unfortunately. One way is to temporarily disable your antivirus, but then you lose the ability for it to scan each download, which can be discomforting.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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November 8, 2013 - 12:22am
(Reply to #2)
vlijmenfileer
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Big file yes, bad antivirus no

Hi there,

I regularly have this issue with portableapps:
- only with large files
- since long ago already
- not with all large files
- not persistantly; just waiting a few hours or days has until now always made the issue go away
- with different virus scanners
- even with virus scanner disabled
- no other large-file downloads give any problems with a supposedly "bad" antivirus

Your reaction sounds very much like the typical IT-support guy knee-jerk reaction "It must be something else, let's point somewhere and add a generic story that people might believe". My guess is that the issue might be /related/ with AV, but that that would not be the simple cause. If it were I would not be downloading any big files, and the issue woiuld not dependably disappear over time. It's surely also the result of the specific way portableapps has implemented its updater.

Regards,
Vlijmen

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November 8, 2013 - 12:52am
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Browser vs Updater

Browsers and the updater download files a bit differently. Plus, as a general rule, antivirus apps are aware of browsers and handle them differently than other apps that download files. We've had reports from multiple users of ESET firewall interfering with downloads, for instance. This has happened numerous times and has been reported to ESET.

As far as additional causes, we haven't found any. We've never been able to reproduce the error using any set of options internally other than via the ESET firewall issue, which we have reproduced. So, the only commonality so-far found is specific antivirus and firewall software (technically it would be firewall issues but many people have antivirus with firewall built in, so I suggest it as both). That's why I suggested it as an option.

The servers you are downloading from are SourceForge's mirror network for most of the open source and either a MaxCDN edge server or a publisher's own web server for freeware. Except for LibreOffice which The Document Foundation hosts themselves on MirrorBrain. We don't host any of it on our own dedicated box running this website. The download component is a part of NSIS (the open source installer language used by millions of apps including Firefox, OpenOffice, etc) and does the download via Windows inet component API calls.

So, all of the networking action that could produce this error happens outside code we've written. It even takes place outside of the language we write in (since it's Windows itself doing the download). Essentially, it's not an error we can cause in the code we ourselves write. It occurs further up the stack from us and we can't get any additional details about it.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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November 8, 2013 - 3:13am
(Reply to #4)
vlijmenfileer
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Browser vs Updater

Hmm,

Thanks for update and insight! Too bad as you use NSIS it's apparently outside your reach to improve upon, oh well.

I was wondering: So I just tried downloading the LibreOffice .paf via your website link in my browser, and it just now resulted in a corrupt 12MB-only file:
https://portableapps.com/redirect/?a=LibreOfficePortable&t=http%3A%2F%2F...
that is the exact link as when updating inside PortableApps?

Of course that downloads:
http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/portable/4.1.3/LibreO...

If I download that directly I get in FF download manager "Failed - Gudangteknologi.com" (I'm in Indonesia)

It seems at least LibreOffice should improve their hosting, and maybe some other products should too.

It might be handy from PortableApps point of view (for your thankful users) if there was some info in PortableApps, when a download fails, that PortableApps actually installs from externally hosted files, giving the exact URL that was tried and failed. I never knew :).

Cheers,
Vlijmen

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November 8, 2013 - 11:08am
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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MirrorBrain Issues

To be honest, LibreOffice's hosting is the least reliable of anything we host. They host on MirrorBrain and it has issues fairly regularly with specific mirrors failing to fully mirror a file. So you get a file with some random download size. I have no idea why their mirror network is as bad as it is. Click that download link you posted and let me know the name of the server that comes up when you get the "Opening..." box in your browser with the Save button. At least then I can let them know which mirror to fix this time.

The issue isn't within NSIS. inetc is the component within NSIS that handles loading files. It uses Windows API components to handle the actual download. And it can handle some regets. But, for some reason, specific servers downloaded through specific proxies can cause issues and an interrupted connection can't be resumed. If you download the code, you'll note that I've actually committed updates to improve the component in the past (to stop it from stealing focus from another window when used silently as we do to check for updates on platform start). I don't know C++ or networking, so there's not much more I can do.

The updater can only present you with the original link:
https://portableapps.com/redirect/?a=LibreOfficePortable&t=http%3A%2F%2F...

in an error as all the redirects happen at the Windows API level.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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November 9, 2013 - 9:03pm
(Reply to #6)
vlijmenfileer
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MirrorBrain Issues Indonesia

Hi,

That would be:
http://tdf.mirrors.gudangteknologi.com
Good luck with letting them know, I sense some frustration ;).

The link:
http://download.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/portable/4.1.3/LibreO...
has the complete mirrorlist for this file. The link used is one of two in Indonesia.

Honestly, I've been living in Indonesia for a while now. The only two things reliable here seem to be the incredible lazy sloppiness of Indonesian people and the bizarely high corruption level. I would seriously consider completely leaving out any hosting in Indonesia and rely upon their neighbours Australia and Singapore.

Thanks for the further explanation Smile

Cheers,
Vlijmen

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November 11, 2013 - 12:02pm
(Reply to #7)
John T. Haller
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Reported

I've reported it to The Document Foundation. I'll let you know when I hear more. In the meantime, you can select the other mirror in Indonesia to get the file.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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