Solving the Dreamweaver ‘Waiting for server’ issue

UPDATE 3/12/12 Mike at Static Caravan was kind enough to share a workaround for this issue.

Virgin Media SuperHub Users:
Login to SuperHub (192.168.0.1)
Click on Advanced Settings
Go to Port Forwarding.
From Pre Defined Services drop down menu select FTP.
Add IP address of PC using Dreamweaver.
Click Add to add rule.
Done.

I’ve noticed in CS5 that if I get the waiting for server dialog box, if I hit cancel and re-upload the file, it seems to resolve the issue as well.

How many times have you been working on a web page in Dreamweaver and go to upload your file to the server only to get the dreaded ‘Waiting for server’ dialog window. I would have to disconnect from the server (multiple times to again get around another waiting for server dialog.) and re-connect.

This has happened with a few versions of Dreamweaver and with each new version I used (CS3, CS4, CS5) it has yet to be fixed.

Then something dawned on me. When my computer is hardwired into the network, there was no waiting for server dialog box. I thought, why does this only appear on my wireless MacBookPro?

Ah ha! It MUST do with the router configuration. So I did a google search on port forwarding for my router, followed the steps, and the problem was solved.

The following steps are geared toward port forwarding for the MI424WR Verizon FiOS Router. Your screen shots may differ from those in this post but it should allow you to get the general idea of how to set it up.

Step 1

Open your web browser and navigate to 192.168.1.1
Open web browser

Step 2

Next, enter your user name and password. If you haven’t changed the user name the default value is ‘admin’. Click OK.
Enter user name and password

Step 3

Once logged in you will see a screen with icons at the top. Click on the ‘Firewall Settings’ icon.
Firewall settings icon

Step 4

In the left hand menu, click ‘Port Forwarding’.

Step 5

In the popup menu click on the red Add.
port forward popup menu

Step 6

In the Add Port Forwarding Rule screen, select the device you want to forward. This would be the IP address of the computer where Dreamweaver is installed.

Step 7

Select FTP from the Protocol drop down menu.

Step 8

Leave “WAN Connection Type” set to “All Broadband Devices”.

Step 9

Change “Forward to Port” to say “Specify”, then enter the device or applications port number (The standard FTP port is 21) that you need to forward.

Step 10

Make sure that the “Always” is selected from “When should this rule occur?”, then click Apply.

Step 11

Don’t panic if you see the rule listed as “unresolved” initially. Refresh your browser a couple of times and it will update to ‘Resolved’.

You should now have bypassed the dreaded ‘Waiting for server’ dialog from hell.

About the author

admin

Chris Leonard started out developing web sites in early 1995 with 2 college friends. Since then he has worked with such clients as Hewlett Packard, DELL, Century 21, RE-MAX, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and many more. His skillset has grown from editing basic html 1.0 in Hot Metal and Homesite to include xhtml, css, AJAX, php, javascript, jQuery and MySQL. Chris also has extensive knowledge of GUI, UX and information architecture in developing business systems for the University of Delaware since 2003. He has also been sole proprietor of AtSea Design web design and marketing strategies since 1999. Chris spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley with some of the earliest and most talented pioneers in web site architecture including a marketing campaign for an observation satellite launch for the U.S. Government and a Webby Award winning team in 2000 for the Monterey Bay Aquarium website. He now resides with his wife and 2 sons in Delaware while working as a web developer at the University of Delaware and tries to play his geetar when he can. You can hear some of his music at SoundClick

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16 Comments

Diedra Federico

08.02.2010

Hi, I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their is a problem in the first place.
admin

08.02.2010

Hi Diedra,

Click on the rss icon on the right and choose your reader. If it’s not listed, right click and save the RSS link at the top of your page.

The problem should be taken care of by Verizon support. I just found a workaround for Dreamweaver that I thought would be useful to others.
Jake Norton

12.30.2010

Thanks for your post on this. For me, I found it wasn’t my router/modem, but rather my Vipre firewall which was blocking Dreamweaver. By adding Dreamweaver.exe to the list of exceptions in the firewall dialog, I was able to get it working again. But, wouldn’t have thought of that without your post…So, thanks again!

-Jake Norton
MountainWorld Productions
http://www.mountainworldproductions.com
http://blog.mountainworldproductions.com
Pamela

01.23.2011

Hello, just stopped by doing some research for my Delaware 4g website. Can’t believe the amount of information out there. Looking for something else, but good site. Have a good day.
Barry

01.26.2011

HI

I recently switched over to using OpenDNS as my DNS service, and the Waiting for Server error disappeared immediately. It was to do with Virgin Media and how they resolve hosts.

Barry
admin

01.28.2011

@Barry if you can send me the steps and screen shots I’ll add an updated thread.
J. Michael Roach

06.07.2011

Barry: I’ve been dealing with the issue for like four years! I can’t believe it, but your suggestion fixed it. Incredible!
admin

06.17.2011

@Roach Glad it worked for you. I have to update this post sometime. It appears that the new firmware revision from Verizon eliminates some of the important port forwarding features making this post a bit outdated.

As I mentioned to Barry if you have steps or more info on another workaround I’d be more than happy to post it and reference you.
Adam

09.10.2011

I can not believe that you have to configure this. Most routers do not block FTP. But better a closed port to much than to many open ports.
Adam recently posted..Free Hosting Subscriber Peak
Dan The Man

09.20.2011

Hi

I’m with Virgin Media and have had this issue for a couple of months now. The issue didn’t exist at all until 2 months ago.

I tried Open DNS as Barry suggested, which didn’t make any difference, which could be because I can only set the Open DNS settings on my PC as the router/super hub doesn’t have any DNS options to set.

I use 1and1 as a host. Virgin Media support told me that they only support basic connection issues. Anthing beyond that is out of Virgin Media’s remit.
Jennyb

10.17.2011

Great for me that I found your Blog… I just started with my own Blog, can I reference to this post? I want to write something on similiar topic!
admin

10.17.2011

@Jennyb Feel free to reference the post and thanks for asking. NOTE: It’s outdated with Verizon as they’ve updated their firmware on their routers (rev. G) and port forwarding is no longer an option.
Mike

02.22.2012

I’ve had this issue for years with CS3, CS4 & CS5 – I followed similar steps on a Virgin Media SuperHub and amazingly it works! No more hanging around pulling my hair out…

Virgin Media SuperHub Users:
Login to SuperHub (192.168.0.1)
Click on Advanced Settings
Go to Port Forwarding.
From Pre Defined Services drop down menu select FTP.
Add IP address of PC using Dreamweaver.
Click Add to add rule.
Done.

Many many thanks for your help.
admin

03.08.2012

@Mike Cool! glad it worked. I noticed in CS5 if I get the message, hit cancel then upload again it seems to take care of the issue.

EDIT: Added your fix to the top of the post.
Dave

06.27.2012

That didn’t work for me I’m afraid. Using VirginMedia superhub and tried Mike’s instructions but still getting the annoying Waiting for Server message.
Christy

08.26.2012

I had that problem for years. Finally, I gave up on even trying. So unless I was hard wired into the server, I would not even try. I will give this solution a try now and see if it helps. It would be nice to update the site from the laptop instead of just the PC tied to the desk.

Thanks for a possible solution.