Rangecast FAQ
[FAQ-1118] Error Message: UPLOAD CONNECTIVITY ERROR (Code 32)


Page Type: SYMPTOM


OVERVIEW

UPLOAD CONNECTIVITY ERROR means that for the past several hours or more, all or most transmissions could not be directed into Rangecast because upload of audio to Amazon's cloud service failed to complete.


METHOD

UPLOAD CONNECTIVITY ERROR means that for the past several hours or more, all or most transmissions failed to upload to Amazon's cloud service. To report an "Upload Connectivity Error" the feed site software must be in communication with Rangecast's servers, so this message does not indicate that the feed site is currently disconnected from the internet (although this message may occur immediately after an extended internet outage, once the site is working again, reporting the recent unreliability of the connection to Amazon.) The inability to upload audio to Amazon's servers indicates a significant problem with internet connectivity.


PATTERNS THAT MIGHT HELP IDENTIFY A CAUSE - We have observed the following patterns:

* CAUSE MAY BE OUTSIDE THE LOCAL NETWORK - It is not uncommon for multiple PCs at different geographic locations, all within the same corporate LAN, to show the symptom simultaneously. This suggests that the failure mode can occur due to a network problem that is upstream from the feed site PC. On rare occasions, we have seen this error message from feed sites operated by different customers who are in the same wide geographic region (e.g. adjacent states), or using the same Internet service provider. Therefore, we suspect that the cause may sometimes relate to network performance far upstream from the customer's own equipment, in the ISP or internet backbone route between the customer and Amazon S3.

* PROBLEM USUALLY RESOLVES WITHOUT ATTENTION - In the majority of cases, the symptom appears for about 3 to 24 hours, and then vanishes without any evident cause without manual intervention or maintenance, and no known factor correlated to the timing of the incident.

* SPEED TESTS MAY BE NORMAL DURING DISRUPTION - An affected PC usually shows good performance in general internet "speed tests" (bandwidth, latency, etc.) The cause of the problem may relate to some specific fragility that is not revealed in consumer-oriented tests of general internet performance. For example, the cause may relate to fragility along the network route to Amazon S3, or a quality that is relevant to the upload/retry/timeout process involved in file uploads.

* LOCAL NETWORK OVERLOADING IS A POSSIBLE CAUSE - In the few incidents where a cause has been identified, the issue was high-bandwidth network usage, such as video streaming or video production, on the same LAN (either with the Internet, or locally between devices.) Reducing other loads on the LAN improved performance. However, usually no cause was ever identified, so this is in the "something to try" category, not an expected fix.


THINGS TO CHECK:

(1) IS PC CLOCK SET CORRECTLY? - If a Clock Error (Code 31) alarm is also present, the PC clock is not set to the correct time or time zone, and this may interfere with security protocols required by Amazon for data transfer.


[FAQ-1053] Error Message: CLOCK ERROR (Code 31)

The CLOCK ERROR message warns that the PC clock is wrong and not synchronized with the Rangecast server. A RED BOX warning with "CLOCK ERROR" displays on the Sender during this condition. If the clock is off by more than 15 minutes (or set to the wrong time zone), this prevents the Sender from feeding audio. This is a disabling problem but is easily fixed. NOTE: this FAQ relates only to a clock error displayed on a PC recording audio, and is NOT related to clock error messages on a PC playing audio.




(2) IS SENDER SOFTWARE YEARS OLD? - Very old feed site Rangecast Sender software (2015 or earlier) may not test the PC clock, so a "Clock Error" condition may be unreported. If the Rangecast software is from before 2016, update the software and see if a clock error is then reported. If the software version is from 2016 or later, there is no need to update the Rangecast software. Nearly all feed sites have already been updated.

(3) IS THE PROBLEM CURRENTLY HAPPENING? - Verify that this is a current problem. Upon recovery from a temporary but extended (several hours or more) internet outage at a feed site location, the Rangecast software reports UPLOAD CONNECTIVITY ERROR. While the network is actually in failure, the error message is not sent; but upon the recovery of the network, the alarm reporting this network problem is finally dispatched by the feed site. It then replacing a "Feed Site Offline" alarm raised by the server during the outage.

(4) ARE NATIONWIDE RANGECAST USERS AFFECTED AT ONCE? - If the majority of Rangecast users nationwide are affected simultaneously, this would be due to a problem with the Amazon credentials used by Rangecast. (This is very unlikely to occur, and if it did, over 90% of all customers would be affected -- including all PCs operated by the affected customer. Customers with multiple feed sites should verify that all of their PCs are showing this error before checking with Rangecast to ask about a possible nationwide outage.)

(5) IS THE LAN OVERLOADED BY OTHER SERVICES? - Check for other high-bandwidth network activity on the same LAN. If present, try reducing the other activity, and observe whether performance improves.

(6) HAS ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE BLOCKED RANGECAST SOFTWARE? - See if anti-virus software has incorrectly blocked Rangecast software from operating or using the internet. Since Rangecast's software makes frequent automated uploads to cloud services, it is possible that normal activity may trigger anti-virus blocking. We cannot provide instructions about how to check this.

(7) CAN THE PC USE THE INTERNET NORMALLY? In a web browser, try navigating to rangecast.com, google.com and other websites, using both HTTP and HTTPS. Do all of these pages load? This tests the ability of the PC to access the internet. If there are problems, do you see patterns or error messages? There can be various problems with the internet connectivity that would affect Rangecast's ability to upload audio.

(8) DOES THE CUSTOMER USE THEIR OWN AMAZON STORAGE CREDENTIALS? - (Uncommon because this can only be an issue if the customer uses their own Amazon credentials for data storage, which is unusual.) Check to see if the customer's username/password used for Amazon (not for Rangecast) is valid. Note: If the customer's Amazon username/password is stored on Rangecast's servers (not the feed site PC) and none of the customer's feed sites show this symptom, then this is not the cause.

The steps described above may not resolve the issue. In most incidents, the cause of the network connectivity problem was never determined, and the issue eventually resolved for some unknown reason not related to any action by Rangecast or the customer.


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