Where is Xara?

Hi,

Xara Staff are you listening....

Ok, can someone give me an answer before I disappear. I have been with Xara for about 2 wks, for a week now I have had a technical problem, I contacted support and they asked me to send them my files via FTP, which I did.
Since then despite follow up emails from me, nothing, zilch.
They are getting my emails because I get the notification emails back.

No support with a program that I cannot use (Keep getting ftp timeout error)
I even sent another email to sales to see if anyone could help, again notification and nothing more.

So if anyone on here has the ear of Xara, maybe you could just mention there's a very confused customer here about to depart if nothing happens...

Hi Starmo,

Just seen this post, if you give me your ticket number, I can pass it on and hopefully speed up the response.

Hi Ben,

Thanks for responding, here are the 2 tickets that have gone nowhere #ZYZ-627-47009 #KOW-959-86779, I sure you agree support like this is not going to keep customers...

I think they are under heavy load. In the past my tickets have usually been answered within about two days. The last one took a month and a day.

Starmo, they are probably a bit swamped as there are new releases that are probably keeping them pretty occupied as people get to grips with the changes in each release.

Xara therefore need to identify where it is letting its customers down and sort it. Xara has chosen a marketing route (or has had one imposed) that is supported to spread revenue over the year, yet it has still fragmented its market with too many products.
Xara has to aim for 80% and higher resolution at first line in less time than it takes me to write all this. That service needs to be 24/7 as the World rums like that.

Xara has to start writing up assured Quality of Service statements to see where the choke points are.

Acorn

Thanks Ben, I finally got some support for my problem today! The bad news is my problem is still not solved, after trying a few of supports suggestions, I was left with a work around, basically publish my site with Filezilla....
No further help has come from support.
Ok, I dont want to appear ungrateful for some support, but is this really what we should expect from a company like Xara. It seems with the new product launch support have been overwhelmed, so I ask this, did Xara not expect more support tickets??
Why was more staff not engaged? As Acorn says, the minimum level of support theses days is 24/7. I and others rely on software for our living, if I have to keep switching to other programs because I cannot get support, I will not be here long.

I have quite a lot of software. Very little of it has 24/7 support because the companies do not have the resources to provide that.

It can be comforting to give Xara a kick now and again, but part of the reason for the existence of TG is to help the community support itself wherever it can rather than just rely on official support channels. It's an informal support channel.

If I were to compare the support from a user forum like TG to the 24/7 support that big companies provide, I'd go for TG wherever possible.

Xara isn't perfect, neither is the software, but you can do a lot worse.

Starmo. Your workaround to use Filezilla is what many users do in any event.

Have you shared your issue on TG?

Paul

Paul, you are right of course, maybe because I am a new Xara user I am expecting too much, but I need software I can rely on for my work, I do not have the time to have loads of workarounds for software that at the end of the day is not working correctly.
You get what you pay for of course, I also use Adobe Muse, 24/7 support but at £180 pa I would expect it. So why use Xara you say, well Muse is over complicated for my needs, Xara COULD provide just what I need.
But transferring from one program to another to publish is not exactly good workflow!

Not sure what you mean about sharing my issue with TG, I am posting on the forum, what else can I do?

Also, slightly off topic, is it possible to get email notification when someone replies here, I don't seem to have it?

Looking at your posts I don't think you have explained what your problem is. I deduce it is something to do with ftp as you mention FileZilla. You do not mention who your hosting company is, which country you are in or which Xara software you are using.

subscribing to the thread is under the thread tools at the top of this page.

Starmo, let's see if we can help you from here.

You have mentioned a ftp timeout error so all we can do is ask around this aspect.

Is it the Xara application that errors with a message? Can you supply that message?
Does it always occur?
Does the upload have a large number of big images?
Do some of these images repeat across many pages? e.g., background.
Does it occur with a smaller file?
Is your machine 32-bit?
Do you know how much RAM your machine has?
Do you have a number of other applications open?

So one gets timeouts for a variety of reasons.
Uploading to the wrong ISP folder location.
Machine without enough memory; running 32-bit limits the RAM size to under 4GB. Running too many application at the same time eats memory.
Having the same large image over several pages, means Xara allocates a different filename to each so the upload is magnified. There is a simple workaround.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Starmo

Paul, you are right of course, maybe because I am a new Xara user I am expecting too much, but I need software I can rely on for my work, I do not have the time to have loads of workarounds for software that at the end of the day is not working correctly.

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Many users here use Xara software for their work and have done for many years. A problem with FTP that may well be because of a misunderstanding on your part about Xara, or may be to do with your web host, is not a "load of issues".

I have yet to encounter software that doesn't have issues or bugs.

Quote:

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You get what you pay for of course, I also use Adobe Muse, 24/7 support but at £180 pa I would expect it. So why use Xara you say, well Muse is over complicated for my needs, Xara COULD provide just what I need.

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It's always the case that when adopting new software from any vendor, some patience is required, reaching out to the existing user community and describing where you are having problems. The user community has been there before you and in most cases seen it all before.

With Xara, virtually all FTP issues that come to light turn out to be because users are not using the software correctly, have incorrectly configured the software, or their web host has some issue to do with their FTP requirements.

Quote:

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But transferring from one program to another to publish is not exactly good workflow!

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Well if you consider that FTP programs like FileZilla exist solely to transfer files between computers, they work well and are very, very popular.

People often prefer working with dedicated software like FileZilla because of the control that it gives and in many cases some web software - not Xara - that I use doesn't have an inbuilt FTP client of their own.

Using FileZilla with Xara is a workaround that has solved your issue for the moment. Many people prefer it to Xara's mechanism, so don't knock it.

Quote:

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Not sure what you mean about sharing my issue with TG, I am posting on the forum, what else can I do?

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As Christine says, engage with the community and explain what you've tried, what the problems are. People will most likely help you find out where exactly the problem sits.

Quote:

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Also, slightly off topic, is it possible to get email notification when someone replies here, I don't seem to have it?

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If I respond to a thread and someone else responds, I always get an email. Christine has pointed the way.

Now tell the community what is going on and the problem, most likely, will be solved.

The problem I am having is, every time I try to publish from within Xara Web Designer 365, even before it begins the upload process, I get the message "FTP Error, The timeout has been reached"
Previously all was working fine, then it started doing this sometimes, then more often, now all of the time.

So I have to export site to a local folder and upload via Filezilla.

I have as support suggested, deleted and reloaded the program, deleted an installation ini file, and tried to publish with firewall off.

My other website design software are all able to publish with no errors.

Sorry, I think I missed some posts.

Acorn, I am running 64 bit Windows 10, I have loads of ram on this machine, cannot remember right now how much though.
I have tried running just Xara and see what happens, it still fails, there are not lots of big images, or backgrounds.

In fact I have even tried uploading a Xara template with no changes made on it, same problem occurs

What's the website?

The website is not the problem, I can upload any one of my clients site and get the same error, as I already said, even one of Xaras unchanged templates also fails.

Starmo, you're showing this website to the world, so why so coy here?

I wonder if you have any humungous assets that are causing the timeout problem for Xara?

If this also is a problem for any website from Xara, I'm not sure. Can you upload a single page site with virtually nothing on it?

Technically yes I am showing the website to the world, but this is my test site where I show clients mock ups, visit blueflare.site88.net and you will see a Xara template that failed to load directly from Xara, it was exported from Xara then Filezilled.
Regarding assets, I do not keep assets in the program, so the only items would be pre loaded.

After the site loaded, I clicked around a bit and then all I could get was "waiting.." .

So I wonder if it's just a question of FileZilla being more tolerant to slow transfers than Xara.

Your website is unusable in my quick trial. Maybe some others can try.

If it's not just me, your webhost might suck.

I just tried it and it all clicked through ok. I have 3 other hosts that I use and I get the same result, including Xaras own hosting

But are we not getting away from the point here, its not a website or hosting problem, the problem is getting from Xara Web designer 365 to a host, any host.

@Paul, works fine here. It is a tad slow, but as it is a temp site, it isn't too unexpected.

@Starmo, I don't know what the Xara response is/was to your support ticket. And I assume you responded with basically a "Thanks, but still not working."

Whenever I have read posts about these types of issues (here on T&G and on Serif's forum), it has usually been associated with some parameter for the site in the ftp details, or an incompatibility in what the application wants to do as regards its connection type or how the server is configured for the connection type.

FileZilla is also recommended as a last resrt on Serif's forums. I have read too many posts on the present and former Serif forums where neither Serif support nor peer support could ever get WP to connect.

As a matter of course, I always export locally, check it in a variety of browsers, then upload with FZ. Now, I admit that's my own working method/preference. And in general these applications ought to work with their own built-in FTP.

As a general point. While I have had few needs to contact Xara support (I don't use the web capabilities), they have often been relatively slow to respond.

I presume you have done a right click and run as administrator after you reinstalled the program.

Can you try copying each page one at a time and publishing, i.e. 1 page then 2 pages etc. just in case it is a particular page causing the issue.

Also are you clearing the site before you try to publish?

Could you allow someone else from here on TG try the upload?

Christine, yes I have tried running as administrator after reinstalling the program. And yes I am clearing the site.

I repeat again, it is not a problem with one website, the problem is there whichever website I choose to load onto it, including the Xara template as stated in my earlier post.
Anybody else attempting to load from their machine would most likely have no problem.

There are only two factors at play here, the program itself or my PC

Starmo, go through your Xara FTP settings with a fine toothcomb and compare them exactly with the settings on FileZilla.

I can sense your frustration in your posts. Don't take it out on the people trying to help you.

How about supplying us with your .web file, even a simple one which is giving you this error & we can try uploading it to our server and see if it still gives the same error?

By the way, if I click on your gallery button my McAffee gives this warning:

Firstly, sorry if I appear frustrated in my posts, you know what is like when you are busy. I try to respond to posts promptly, maybe I should only reply when I really have the time.
I really do appreciate all the help you guys are giving me, where would we all be without these forums.

The latest update is the program is now throwing up the error "Ïnternal Program Error 1525 k.sy.up" every few seconds, so I cannot access anything. This of course is not helping my mood.
Welcome any suggestion you guys have, but would be nice to get something from support.

In the meantime, thank goodness for Muse!