The Real Blogger Status

We see the occasional question, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger , about hosting blog content. How do I self host my Blogger blog, as I do with my WordPress blog? This blog owner does not understand that Blogger and Google provide far better hosting of our content, than any of us can individually provide.

I've been writing about Custom Domain Publishing, and about FTP Publishing, and the relative advantages and differences, for several years now. In August 2007, I went out on a limb (for me, anyway) and I suggested that From an economic and support viewpoint, it makes more sense for Blogger to concentrate its attention on Custom Domain publishing, where they control everything but the domain directory process, and can eliminate the uncertainty of supporting communications with hundreds of third party servers, complicated by geographical and network distance issues. Blogger, in FTP vs. Custom Domains , last year, provided their view of why custom domain publishing has more future. As I've dug in over the last few weeks on issues relating to FTP, as often as not the problems were not Blogger-related but were a byproduct of a webhost implementing stricter security on FTP logins (only whitelisting certain IP addresses, for instance, or throttling access for certain users). These are...

This week, we have yet more reports of the chronically present old friend ConnectException: Connection timed out. for bloggers publishing by FTP. So far, the reports of this problem seem to be associated with server space provided by Aruba. If you are suffering from this problem, please provide diagnostic information: The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). When was the blog setup in Blogger? (If the blog was published immediately by FTP, say so). The blog domain URL. When was the blog setup for FTP publishing? The name of the server hosting company. The Blogger FTP server setting (name or IP address of the server), in use right now. What operating system, browser, and version of Java do you use? Where are you located, and what ISP do you connect through? If you have other blogs that are not having a problem publishing, the same information may be relevant too. Remember, we're looking for a solution for your problem, so be generous, and precise. >> Top

If you are still publishing your Blogger blog to an external, non Google server, using FTP , in spite of many recommendations , you are probably used to various advice, such as that which instructs you to contact the support staff for the host server , when problems are seen. Not everybody knows how to deal with server support personnel, though. The host server staff says they don't see any log errors. or I can update using FastFTP, with no problems. The problem must be with Blogger! These are common attitudes, which probably should be expected. Common or expected, they may not get your problem solved. The clues are in the server logs . What the host server support personnel see as "no log errors" may need to be interpreted properly. You pay them for service, so they work for you. FastFTP, and similar desktop clients, require a series of server profiles which you setup, by hand - one for each server. You have no problem with FastFTP because you configure FastFTP, spe...

Recently, we're seeing an assortment of complaints about blog feeds, either not working at all, or updating slowly. Whether presented in a browser display, in a Following Reading List / Google Reader, or in a bloglist gadget, the accuracy of the feed as displayed can be affected by a few issues. Custom feed redirection. Custom Domain redirection. Classic vs New feed URL, and Blogger vs BlogSpot / domain served feed. Feeds served by third party servers (FTP publishing). Feeds from private blogs (which don't exist). Cached feed content. Custom Feed Redirection A custom, redirected feed, redirected through FeedBurner or a similar service , will be affected by problems with the service. When you check out a problem with a redirected feed, it may be helpful to compare the redirected feed content with the non redirected feed content. Custom Domain Redirection A feed coming from a blog that's published to a custom domain will be affected by the custom domain DNS i...

This month, we have several reports from bloggers who, for one reason or another, have changed the FTP username and / or password on the domain host server, and then updated the username / password in their Blogger FTP settings . Much to their dismay, when attempting to publish their blog, they find the old username / password being sent to the remote server . I have verified it's saving my new username in the publishing settings and yes, I'm seeing the error based on the posting status. I get the following ... FTP login failed (server: ftp.domain.com, username: myoldusername, reason: 530 User myoldusername cannot log in. ) Are you seeing this behaviour, when trying to publish your blog? What is the blog URL? What is the FTP server setting? When did you make the setting change? Did you verify the problem, by examining the host server activity logs? >> Top

Occasionally, a blogger reports a problem with FTP Publishing, and it turns out to be caused by changes made at the host server . Rarely, the host server staff admits to the problem promptly, and we can move on. Today, we got an answer back, and positive results , in the same day. I called Yahoo again. I pestered them and found out that there WAS a change on their side of things. I was able to resolve the issue. then later The change they made was that they now require the entire email address as the user name (username @yahoo.com ) whenever you're going FTP something. In Blogger, I made this change under: Settings - Publishing - FTP username . If you have a blog published to a Yahoo server, using FTP, and your publishing has stopped working this week, maybe this is why you're here. Check the settings for your blog , and contact the Yahoo support team . Verify the change, then update your settings. >> Top

This week, we are seeing the return of the well known FTP Publishing symptom Publishing your blog is taking longer than expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here. There are several threads in Blogger Help Forum , reporting this problem with various amounts of detail. If you are suffering from this problem, please provide details of your experience, to help Blogger Support get a start diagnosing the problem. The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). The blog domain URL. The name of the server hosting company, or URL of the host server. The Blogger FTP server setting value. as part of your problem report. If you're able, work with the server support staff, and examine the server activity and firewall logs , and see what is seen from the server perspective too. (Update 8/4 6:30): One blogger has found a possible workaround by adjusting the value of the "FTP Path" setting , relative to the "Blog URL" setting. With the trailing slash in the Blog URL a...

This blog is The Real Blogger Status , and it's published as " blogging.nitecruzr.net ". You are looking at the blog itself . What you see is a lot easier for you to digest, than for computers to do so. There's another copy of your blog, though, that's designed for computers to digest, so the information can be passed to other places, maybe as part of another web site or blog , or to a reader who is subscribed to your blog, using a newsreader . The other copy is called the blog feed . Before we got Layouts Blogger, in 2006, we had pre 2006 Blogger. The first blog feeds, provided as part of pre 2006 Blogger, were served as part of the published blog. The pre 2006 Blogger blog feeds were continued into Layouts Blogger. For "blogging.nitecruzr.net", we have an pre 2006 Atom feed "blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default", also addressed as "blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=atom". We similarly have an RSS feed, ad...

Yesterday, we noted the return of the well known FTP Publishing symptom Publishing your blog is taking longer than expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here. Today, and based upon observed threads in Blogger Help Group, and comments to the earlier post , it appears that the problem was not fixed, for all bloggers. If you're experiencing a problem with publishing your blog, please provide details about your problem. And please, especially , when you report your problem, state whether you observed this problem yesterday also, and specifically state whether the symptoms of your problem are the same as reported yesterday. Nobody will be served by us reporting that yesterdays problem was not fixed, if your symptoms do not reflect the same problem as was fixed yesterday. If we have a new problem, that has to be diagnosed and treated as a new problem. When making your problem report, as always, please provide details . The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). The blog do...

This week, we are seeing the return of the well known FTP Publishing symptom Publishing your blog is taking longer than expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here. There are numerous threads in Blogger Help Group, including one rather long and multiposted thread in Publishing Trouble , " FTP Publishing not working. ". If you are suffering from this problem, please provide diagnostic information The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). The blog domain URL. The name of the server hosting company. The Blogger FTP server setting value. as part of your problem report, in BHG: Publishing Trouble . (Update 11:30): Blogger Support has fixed the problem This has been fixed. (Update 10:30): Blogger Support has acknowleged the problem We're looking into this now and will post an update once we have more info. >> Top

Once again, we have several reports from bloggers who publish blogs to external servers, using FTP. Tha file at http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8073700612434047107/posts/default is ok. But the files in my FTP (http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/rss.xml and atom.xml) are at 0. and I noticed on my server that although Blogger is writing the postings to the correct path and archives on my server, and although the progress screen says it is writing to the files atom.xml and rss.xml on that server, in fact these files are remaining at 0 bytes. This problem, first seen a couple weeks ago , and fixed shortly after it was seen, has returned. (Update 13:00): Blogger has declared this issue fixed . Update: This has been fixed. As with the previous occasion , I suggest that you republish your blog. >> Top

This week, we have a few complaints about Atom / RSS feeds, in various blogs. When I republish my blogs to my FTP server, the atom.xml and rss.xml files are empty. or I published a new post, and feed file size is 0. Tried republishing template/settings and deleting the rss.xml file, but it still publishes with a 0 file size. or I recently selected "Publish Entire Blog" from the dashboard settings and now both the rss.xml and atom.xml files are zero bytes. I have tried republishing selected entries and the entire blog again but to no avail, the feeds are still blank. We also had one very insightful and interesting post . I see the file here: http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8073700612434047107/posts/default but it is at 0 in my FTP here: http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/atom.xml and here http://www.afnews.info/public/afnews/rss.xml This observation is very useful. It points out that the problem isn't the feed, it's the involvement of FTP Publishing. I verified the o...

A number of bloggers are reporting a new error message, seen when attempting to publish their blog to an external server java.net.NoRouteToHostException: No route to host This error is sometimes seen in networking issues in general, and is generally caused by problems like host name or address being incorrect, or maybe a bad DNS server or a bad router. Those are all conditions that lie within Google. Keeping an open mind, it's possible that the problem may start with something simple, like the Blog URL / FTP Server settings . Based on the number and variety of reports being published, the problem will probably be resolved by Blogger Support, but getting the problem recognised by them will likely start with help from the bloggers affected identifying the symptom. If you are experiencing this problem, some basic diagnostic information (whatever you know and can provide) might be useful, to help Blogger Support identify an affinity. You'll find a number of open threads in Blogge...

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 ques...

During the past week, we have had two incidents (maybe one incident, incompletely resolved ) of a well known (and extremely unwanted) error ConnectException: Connection timed out. commonly seen by bloggers who are trying to publish their blogs to external servers, using FTP. The problem was reported as fixed , originally, on December 26. It popped up again, on December 28, and that occurrence was reported as fixed on December 31. From reading several threads in the forums, it appears that the problem was not fixed. Several reports are by bloggers who complain Changed the domain settings (according to another forum thread) and removed ftp just keeping domainname.com. That fix worked but as of today the problem is back. This is starting to get really frustrating. and working for me on the one of two ftp blogs that was broken before. Now the other one, that was ok before, is broken. and other, more optimistic observations I fixed mine and post a blog about it. and Instead of entering ...

Last week, we had reports of another old friend ConnectException: Connection timed out. That problem was reported to be resolved. Today, we see more reports of the same symptom. At least one comment implies that the problem being reported to day is not the same as last week. Last week, the symptom of the problem was, in many cases, worked around by changing the host server name from "ftp.mysite.com" to "mysite.com", or vice versa, depending upon its current setting. That may not be the case, this weekend. Let's continue trying to enumerate the symptoms. The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). When was the blog setup in Blogger? (If the blog was published immediately by FTP, say so). The blog domain URL. When was the blog setup for FTP publishing? The name of the server hosting company. The Blogger FTP server setting (name or IP address of the server), in use right now. What operating system, browser, and version of Java do you use? Where are you located, an...

This week, we have reports of another old friend ConnectException: Connection timed out. Possibly, this is a recurrence of last month's problem , or maybe an earlier problem . If you are suffering from this problem, please provide diagnostic information: The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). When was the blog setup in Blogger? (If the blog was published immediately by FTP, say so). The blog domain URL. When was the blog setup for FTP publishing? The name of the server hosting company. The Blogger FTP server setting (name or IP address of the server), in use right now. What operating system, browser, and version of Java do you use? Where are you located, and what ISP do you connect through? If you have other blogs that are not having a problem publishing, the same information may be relevant too. Remember, we're looking for a solution for your problem, so be generous, and precise. And spend some time reading about possible problems with FTP Publishing . All problems aren'...

The Blogosphere, and particularly the BlogSpot address space, has been known, for some time, as a space where dodgy content is located . BlogSpot has been used for delivery of visually undesirable content (aka porn), and non visually undesirable content (aka hacking and spam) for some time. In January 2008, that changed , and publishers of blogs containing various forms of hacking / porn / spam found their activities hampered (though not completely shut down). Many bloggers who wished to continue to provide us with antisocial and illegal content, using Google servers, started to relocate their payload, so Blogger could not detect the malicious blogs by merely scanning all of BlogSpot.

This month, we again see reports of several frequent FTP Publishing problem symptoms. The well known Your publish is taking longer than expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here. and ConnectException: Connection timed out. These symptoms have been seen fairly recently , but now we have an additional detail. Some reports are from bloggers who have examined the server activity and firewall logs , and who explicitly state that the server is getting no incoming traffic. This could, conceivably, be another episode of the Server IP address / Name setting change. If you are suffering from this problem, please provide diagnostic information The blog BlogSpot URL (if applicable). The blog domain URL. The name of the server hosting company. The Blogger FTP server setting value. as part of your problem report, in BHG: Publishing Trouble . Please, be socially conscious and start a new thread for your report. >> Top