svn "network connection closed unexpectedly". Firewall problem?

3
votes

I have an SVN repository on a remote linux server, and I am using TortoiseSVN as my Windows 7 client. For many months, I had no problem accessing the repository through TortoiseSVN.

Then one day I was no longer able to commit files. Immediately after entering my password, I got the error message:

Commit failed. Network connection closed unexpectedly

The tech support folks at my web hosting company are able to access my SVN repository, using my password. They checked to see if my local computer was blacklisted, and it is not.

I have been scratching my head, trying to figure out what the problem is. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I am wondering whether this may be a firewall problem, and if so how I might debug it? I am running Norton 360.

Here is a possible clue. The following incident occurred shortly before the SVN problem started:

One day, after an automatic Windows 7 update, the windows 'flag' icon suddenly displayed a big red 'x', and when I went to see what was wrong it said something like:

"your norton firewall is not running. do you want to enable the windows firewall?"

I ignored the message for a few days, because it looked like norton firewall was in fact running. When the error message did not go away, I may have checked the box "ok, run the windows firewall". I am not 100% certain, my memory is foggy on this.

This windows error message did not go away until after the next automatic Windows 7 update. Perhaps there was a bug in the previous automatic update, which screwed up some firewall-related windows settings. I am unable to check any of the windows firewall settings, because these windows settings are managed by Norton.

Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated!!

4
svntortoisesvn
Does the TortoiseSVN Repo Browser work? Also, if you're comfortable with Wireshark (wireshark.org), you can try running it to see what exactly is happening at the network level. – Josh Kelley
The TortoiseSVN Repo Browser does not work. Every time I submit my password, I am prompted again to enter my password. I am not familiar with Wireshark, but I will take a look. Thanks for the tip. – moondog
One clue: if this happens only for http:// based repositories, but not https:// ones, then it's almost certainly the virus scanner – Stefan
@Stefan: What is the difference between an "http:// based repository" and an "https: based repository"? Is it "https based" if I access the repository using a private key, as opposed to a password? – moondog
I tried turning off my Norton firewall, and the problem persisted. So it looks like I was barking up the wrong tree. – moondog

4 Answers

1
votes

It's likely your svn server is echoing back some warnings that confuses TortoisePlink. In my case this is what I got.

svn: warning: cannot set LC_CTYPE locale
svn: warning: environment variable LANG is en_US.UTF-8
svn: warning: please check that your locale name is correct

It took me several hours to track down the culprit ;(

0
votes

are you using HTTP or SVN protocol?

You're right - the same message is a standard network error message, so see if you can ping the server. You can open the port for the SVN protocol (port 3690) and see if that helps, or disable one of your firewalls. The Windows one works ok, so just uninstall Norton completely. (and install the microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus - its very good, which is why MS bought it).

0
votes

My problem was that I had a proxy that was not working anymore.

Could it be that?

0
votes

I had a svn connection problem which was caused by a windows bug for specific processors. There is a hotfix available. You can test is by turning off the ndis driver at the networkcard level. Just turning off the firewall will not help.

More info: http://blog.in-orde.nl/content/svn-errors-checkout-windows-7