Troubleshooting FTP Links

Members occasionally experience trouble while trying to use their browser to access a DICOM ftp site or web address. Usually, this happens when you attempt to click on a link that is supposed to take you directly to the desired site. There are three common causes for such problems:

  • An incomplete address;
  • Missing user identification and password or
  • Corporate firewalls.

Incomplete Address

The Problem: The path to a site may contain more characters than can fit on a single line – even if the font size is reduced considerably. This is most likely to happen when the link appears in an E-mail message that may allow, say, only 80 characters per line. Under these circumstances, the link will be broken into two parts. If you click on the first line, which may appear in blue and be underlined (as expected for most hyperlinks), the attempt will fail because the address is not complete.

The Solution: You must copy the entire file address (that was spread over two lines) into your browsers address box. This should start with "ftp" or “http” and end in an appropriate way (e.g., with a file extension like .doc, .pdf, .exe or .htm but not in the middle of a word or number). Without the whole address, you browser can’t retrieve the file you are looking for.

Missing User Identification and Password

The Problem: Suppose you are using your browser to click on a complete but relatively “short” address for one of DICOM’s private ftp sites – e.g.,

ftp://medical.nema.org/medical/private/dicom/WORKGRPS/Logos/LOGO-SM.doc

Clearly, it fits easily on a single line. However, that is not the problem. You will be told that the browser is “Unable to open….The Internet site reports that the item you requested could not be found.” The problem is that the link is not complete. It must include both the user ID and the password.

The Solution: The easiest way to solve this problem is to prevent it in the first place. The person who initially copies the link and pastes it into the document needs to go back and put in the username and password that were stripped out by no fault of his own. If that doesn’t happen, then, each person who is seeking the file will have to put the information into the link. For the example above, the complete address should appear like this:

ftp://username:/medical/private/dicom/WORKGRPS/Logos/LOGO-SM.doc

after the appropriate words have been inserted.

Firewall issues

The Problem: Your organization has installed a firewall that prevents you from downloading files.

The Solution: Talk to the head of your IT department. NEMA staff can’t fix this one.

Last update:2004-02-05