Can't upload PS jpegs (and only PS jpegs)

[randmcnatt]

I have a <i>very</i> odd problem. Today, suddenly, I can't upload Photoshop

JPEG files. Just Photoshop, just JPEG.

<p>Lightroom-generated JPEGs are OK; so are files from my cameras, Gimp,

ImageMagick, and other graphic programs. Opening a PS JPEG in Gimp or other

program and then saving it is enough to make it uploadable.

<p>Photoshop-created PSDs work, along with TIFs, as do PNGs, GIFs, PDFs and EPS

files.

<p>It doesn't matter if I try to upload to SmugMug (using the Java uploader, the

one-at-a-time uploader or Omar Shahine's Send2Smug) or to ImageShack, or simply

FTP to my own hosted server. It also doesn't matter if I try to do the upload

from Windows XP or Linux, with or without our Netgear firewall. Attempting to

upload any PS JPEG just stalls out at some multiple of 4kb, and never over 32k.

<p>Thinking my ISP may have added some funky anti-virus or throttling filter, I

called them up and had a pleasant conversation with a very nice young lady who

wasn't too sure what a jay peg is, but allowed as that the "guys" have been real

busy with a lot of calls recently; they'll get back to me Any Time

Now®.[Hey, those guys are good! Just heard back from a tech and he's got no

idea but does understand the problem and will kick it up to the network admins

this afternoon.]<p>There's nothing I can find on the 'net or PN about the

problem. Has anyone come up against anything like this?

[ty_mixon]

Hmm . . . Maybe take a PSJpg, open in Gimp, save w/ a new name, & then run a program like diff (in linux) that can look for byte-for-byte differences?

 

I would expect it to turn up in the first 32k.

 

It might give a clue . . .

[randmcnatt]

Unfortunately, Gimp and PS write jpegs completely differently, so every byte after the initial header is different.

 

However, I have found out it's triggered by something in the exif data somewhere, and that the problem results in apparently false TCP ACK and DUP ACK packets (acknowledgments) being sent back to me. I figure they're forged because the initial ACK is sent even though the chunk of file being acknowleged never arrives. Also they're being "returned" faster than the round-trip signal time on the route. I can't see all these different servers in different places all sending unneeded ACKs and only on PS jpeg files. I've got the culprit narrowed down to nts-online.net, Level3.net, and wcg.net (never heard of them, but I think they're owned by Level3), because those are the only routes in common between all the servers I've tried. Oddly, Comcast has recently been caught doing the exact same thing.

 

Workaround 1: Photoshop's Save for Web, which strips the exif data, but that's a pain to use, especially as we use scripts to get everything ready, and there's SOME exif data I'd like to have on the files.

 

Workaround 2: Re-import everything into Lightroom, export full-size jpegs. That'll have to do until my ISP gets it figured out.