Vaio Update Error "there has been a problem downloading from the ftp"

Hi, i have a Sony VGN-AW31M/H and the Vaio Update site says there are 2 updates available, a WinBD one and a bios update. When trying to download either of these, a small download window appears with 0/xxxxxxxx bytes but no progress happens. Eventually it times out with the error above.

I have tried resetting IE cache, deleting the C:\update folder, adding the vaio update exe to the windows firewall, im not sure what else i can try.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated! many thanks

 

Chances are that you're behind a home router, in which case you can only use passive FTP. The FTP server may be behind a firewall, which blocks your connection attempts to the (random) passive port.
This is the main reason why FTP has become so unpopular lately.

First of all, check in IE's settings that you have passive FTP enabled (if you're behind a cheap router) or disabled (if your PC has a direct connection). Right-click Internet Explorer, choose Properties, go to the "Advanced" tab and scroll down to "Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility)".

If passive<->firewall is the problem, the solution (unless you want to splurge on a new router that can handle active FTP) is to download from the web site using HTTP, not FTP.
If that's not possible, temporarily configure your home router with your PC as a "DMZ host" or similar, in which case it will get all traffic, solicited or not, and active FTP will work.

Of course, it could be a different problem, like having installed a "download manager" or something similar. Those things don't work (except to tell the company who made them exactly what you're downloading from where, so they can spam you better).
Or a proxy server misconfiguration, but I doubt it.
Or their server might simply be down, or overloaded with all the Windows 7 downloads.

 

thanks for taking the time to come back to me with that, appreciate it.

I have successfully downloaded from the site before, so i was abit confused. However, i did what you suggested on the router side, its actually not a bad router, lots of options. Managed to try each idea but didnt seem to make a difference.

The updates arent urgent or essential, so i guess ill wait a few days and try again, just incase it is something to do with the website. If not, i may just try taking my laptop to a friends house, seeing if it works there, then at least i would know if it was a router setup issue or not.

Cheers for all your help dude!

 

cracked it!

MTU value on router was the default of 1432, changed this to 1500 and the updates are downloading now.

Cheers again for your help!