[thelist] need help diagnosing problem uploading file to website

[Sarah Adams]

I am responsible for maintenance and updates of a fairly large document 
repository-type site, which is based on a custom CMS that I built for 
the client. One of the users who regularly uploads documents to the site 
has, in recent months, complained to me a few times of not being able to 
upload documents to the site. After discussing the problem with her, I 
am at a complete loss as to where to go from here in trying to 
diagnose/fix the problem. I suspect I might be able to get a clue if I 
could observe the user in person, but that's not possible.

Does anyone have any suggestions of where I should look next, or what 
further questions I should ask the user? (more details below)


I believe the error is a timeout error. Here are 2 different error 
messages that the user has seen when experiencing this problem:

   The page cannot be displayed
   The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
   might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to
   adjust your browser settings...

   Network Error (tcp_error)
   A communication error occurred: ""
   The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems
   preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again
   at a later time...

Here's some more info that may have some bearing on the problem:
- the site is ColdFusion 6
- the user is using Internet Explorer 6
- only this one person and two people in her "team" have ever reported 
this problem, other people in the same office have no problems
- this user is sometimes able to upload documents no problem, she says 
it's about a third of the time that she has this problem
- when the document that she can't upload is emailed to another of her 
colleagues (not in her team), the colleague can upload it no problem; 
same if she emails it to me
- the document is being uploaded from the user's hard drive, not a 
shared drive
- the problem happens when trying to upload various file types, 
including Word, PDF, and PowerPoint, with reasonable file sizes, the 
most recent being about 3 megs
- at my request, the user's MIS people looked into the problem, 
including running virus and spyware scans on her computer, and didn't 
find anything (although I still wouldn't rule out a problem on her end)

-- 
sarah adams
web developer & programmer
portfolio: http://sarah.designshift.com
blog: http://hardedge.ca