Download Large ZIP files with DFP1.13 is very unreliable !

TestDigitalFilePro.asp

Provides a button to download a large zipped file (60MB).

9 out of 10 times it fails to download the whole file. If you sit and watch the download dialog, you may see it stop at 40MB, 50MB etc. It 'thinks' the download has completed, but when you try and open the zip file it is reported as being corrupted.

Attached is the page code.

Heeeellllllppppppp, my customers are going crazy that the download is so unreliable !

Most likely, the script is timing out for some users because they have a slower connection. there are 2 PHP settings that can be changed to account for this:

1) max_execution_time:
It specifies the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that is allowed for each PHP script to execute.

The default value is 30.


2) max_input_time:
It specifies the maximum amount of time (in seconds) that is allowed for each PHP script to receive the client's HTTP request.

The default value is 60.



To find out what those those to are set to, you can add the following in the body of your page:

max_execution_time: <?php echo(ini_get('max_execution_time')); ?><br />

max_input_time: <?php echo(ini_get('max_input_time')); ?><br />

to change the values, add the following at line 1 of your page:

<?php

 ini_set("max_execution_time", 120);

 ini_set("max_input_time", 120);

?>

you may need to increase the number of seconds to account for slower connections.

Thanks Jason.

This is for DFP 1.13 from an .asp page, which DFP 1.x supports.

TestDigitalFilePro.asp

Are your suggestions still appropriate ? or are they based on a php page ?

Sorry, I missed the ASP part.

Same idea, different code.
ASP uses the ScriptTimeout property.

To get the value use:
<%
response.write(Server.ScriptTimeout)
%>


to set the script timeout use:
<%
Server.ScriptTimeout=200
%>

Thanks Jason, unfortunately this has not improved the situation.

I've tried, 100, 200, 400 & 1000 !

Have you tried the download test link I provided ?

Any other ideas ?

When I try it, it always times out at 100 seconds. in that time it able to download between 29 and 31 megabytes


are you sure the time out is changing?

at line 1 add the following:
<%
response.write("Old timeout: " & Server.ScriptTimeout & "<br />")
Server.ScriptTimeout=500
response.write("New timeout: " & Server.ScriptTimeout & "<br />")
%>

Sorry Jason, I forgot to provide you with an updated link to the page that has the modified time outs.

TestDigitalFileProWA.asp

I tried it this morning and it worked. But, I have had success before, followed by lots of failures. I'll keep testing it and ask my clients, around the globe, to test it.

Question : Is the ScriptTimeout value the total number of seconds allowed for the WHOLE download to complete, or for 'blocks' of the data to be downloaded ? Because if its for the whole download, some slow connections in India, for example, may take 20-30 minutes ! should I change the value to 1800 ?

Are there any negative effectes of changing this value to a high number ?

Thanks for your help and I'll let you know if my clients have better success with this change.

Jason, testing for a 2nd and 3rd time, BOTH failed ! Also, a client in germany confirmed his download failed.

Each time the time on the download dialog was around 1min 30+ secs !

Does this seem to endorse the thinking that the timeout value change is not being effective ?

I've attached my code, what do you think ? you can see the extended time is written when the page is run ?

TestDigitalFileProWA.asp

Hi Jason, I contacted GD and as everyone else reports, they state they have tested their server, everything is OK and they do not overide any ASP settings, it must be a problem with the script and as it is custom, they don't provide support on this issue !

So, I have moved my page to another domain/host(Earthlink) and constructed a test PHP page (As my account does not support ASP).

I tested it once and it worked, so now I will ask my clients around the globe to test it.

TestDigitalFileProWA.php

Watch this space for further news. If you do have any ideas on the ASP based problems, let me know, as I'd prefer to keep things the way they are, rather than port to PHP on a different host.

Hi, - tested via your last link.

My download speeds are pretty poor in peak times (100 kB/sec for this test) - I received 28MB the first time, and 25.8MB the second.