FTPing inserting random "illegal characters"

[peterinwa]

I didn't know where to post this one and I've never seen anything like it. I always thought computers had all kinds of checks on their reading/writing functions and I've never seen spurious data contaminate a file.

For a few days I've occasionally had problems with pages only to find an illegal character or two in the coding. It could be my PC; my FTP software (which has worked for a long); or the website host server.

(I did change something on my PC a week ago; I "upgraded" from Windows 95 to 98 (I hear you laughing). Can't imagine this has anything to do with it but then...)

I finally found out what was happening by copying the same webpages to two different places. One worked fine and the other crashed.

I don't like Netscape, but it sure has better error messages than IE. Turns out a couple "illegal characters" had been inserted in the code. My webhost support says they were ASCII characters with a value of zero.

This might be a clue. I did find one corrupt file on my system (i.e., not FTPed) that had two characters in it that looked like squares in notepad. I deleted them and everything was fine. I'm rambling here but now I'm thinking maybe it is my PC doing it. On the other hand, these files that don't work after I FTP them to webhosts continue to run fine on my PC.

If I see a page doesn't work I guess I can just keep FTPing till I get a good copy. But that's a scary solution because the problem could be obscure and I would not see it right away.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Peter

[peterinwa]

P.S.

I am now convinced that these two blank characters ARE being randomly inserted in the FTPing process. I have found them in all the files that aren't working and I am just re-FTP the files to correct them.

Also I said that I found them in a file on my own PC... but I could have FTPed that "back" from a website.

So why is my FTP software doing this?

[oilman]

what FTP software are you using? and are you sure you are transfering the files in ASCII? What editor are you using for the files?

[peterinwa]

I'm using WSFTP95LE free from download.com.

It's worked for a long time.

I use WordPad and don't have a clue if I'm FTPing in ASCII or binary... my webhost asked that too.

Seeing the "95" in the above name, it occurred to me that maybe I should download it again because I just upgraded from Windows 95 to 98.

In hindsight, I think the "95" is THEIR release date. But I did download it again and I haven't seen the problem since... though it's too soon to be sure since it is inconsistent.

Thanks, Peter

[pendanticist]

As an alternative, might I suggest looking for WS_FTP LE, from the folks at http*//www.ftpplanet.com/download.htm , all the way at the bottom. It is the newer version and suited to '95, '98 and NT.

Pendanticist.

[martinibuster]

I have my doubts that it's the ftp program.

I know for a fact that there is some kind of problem with certain characters when cutting and pasting between MSWord and any other app (dreamweaver, notepad, etc.).

I'm not sure about WordPad, but the squares you mentioned are familiar to me as artifacts from the cutting and pasting process. I have seen them myself.

Generally, these are translation errors in trying to recreate special characters between two different apps.

[peterinwa]

The FTP mentioned is the one I just downloaded and it didn't help, but thanks.

I am now able to repeat the problem regulary.

Each time after I FTP a large file I can then search it and find these two blank characters inserted into the code in two or three places. Always different places.

[jatar_k]

What are the characters before you cut and paste them. Maybe open the source files in notepad and see if there is a recognizable char there.

Did you originally create these files (the source ones you pasted into wordpad)?

[Oaf357]

Hmm... sounds like you're on a Windows box and uploading to a Unix box or vice versa. If you're using notepad or wordpad to edit files ensure they are saved as ANSI or US-ASCII (this goes for any text editor).

Hope that helps.

[peterinwa]

I haven't had the problem occur again for the last many hours. I have searched every file FTPed for two "spaces" and not found any inserted into the code.

My best guess as to why this occurred is that I had very many windows open and perhaps something running in one that interfered with the FTP software... competing for computer time in my old '95 PC.

On the other hand, it's not likely that interference of type would cause the consistent entry of two ASCII characters with the value of zero. Though they were inserted into the code "randomly."

Thanks for the help, Peter