FTP Publishing - What's In A Name?

Recently, many bloggers attempting to publish their blogs externally, using FTP, have posted a noticeable volume of reports about a chronic and unresolved problem

ConnectException: Connection timed out.

This symptom has been seen in the past, and for a long while, and is very likely the result of dozens of actual problems. The current volume of reports, vastly surpassing the chronic past level, suggests a new, recently created problem. Various workarounds for this latest problem have been published by several optimistic bloggers.

I fixed mine and post a blog about it.

and

Instead of entering your domain name, enter the IP address, then try to publish.

and even

Using ftp.mydomain.com did work (instead of the usual ftp.myhost.com)

These reports, and others like them, would lead us to believe that the current problem revolves around the FTP setting "FTP Server" - and changing the value of that setting seems to have a restorative effect, for some bloggers. The setting in question can, potentially, have several possible values. Not all possibilities will work for any specific domain and / or server.

1. IP Address. This will work, when the FTP server hosts one web site, hosted on one IP address. It won't work, if the domain is intentionally spread among multiple redundantly arrayed servers, using DNS for load balancing, or if the server hosts "http" content by default.
2. "mydomain.com". This will work, when the default service for the domain is configured to serve content using FTP.
3. "ftp.mydomain.com". This is the proper URL for the domain "mydomain.com".
4. "myhost.com". This will work, when the FTP server hosts one web site, "mydomain.com". It won't work if the server hosts "mydomain.com", "myotherdomain.com", and / or "mydomain.org", or if the server hosts "http" content by default.
5. "ftp.myhost.com". This is the proper URL for the host server "myhost.com".

If you are the victim of the mentioned error

ConnectException: Connection timed out.

and the error is caused by the current problem, and not by another problem, changing the "FTP Server" setting from one of the above to another may help you. But you'll have to try up to 4 alternatives, hoping that you can determine each one appropriate.

Each different FTP Hosting server will have different identity settings, so if any one change works for you, rest assured that it won't work for everybody. And as soon as Blogger fixes their current problem, their fix will possibly invalidate your change. It's possible, keeping an open mind, that the folks suffering right now are those who made a similar change last week, to get around the problem at that time. When Blogger fixed that problem, it broke their workaround.

So if you make a change this week, based upon the current problem, remember what you changed from. If things start working for you now, then stop later, back out your workaround.

(Update 1/5): Is it possible that Blogger lets you leave the "FTP Server" setting blank, and derives the setting from the value of the domain name, or another FTP Publishing setting?

In my Settings, I have NEVER put anything under the FTP: space. It has always been empty. Now I am reading that something should be there

Is this maybe where this whole mess started?

(Update 1/4): The current problem has been declared fixed, by Blogger Support staff.

This problem has once again been fixed. I am very, very sorry for the trouble and assure you that we will work to permanently eliminate the problem.

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