Unzipping file issue

[Michael Abrams]

**If this is in the wrong section, please feel free to move it to where it belongs.**

Once again my IT people 'don't know'.

I obtain a zipped file from a client's 'secure ftp website'. I click on the xxxxx.zip file, it offers to OPEN/SAVE/CANCEL.

I save it to our Public Drive. Using PKZip, I then go to the location where the file is at, and click on it, and PKZIP unzips the file. I have done this for 8 years !
My associate has also done this exact procedure for 8 years.

All of a sudden, when my associate downloads (SAVES AS) the zip file, she cannot open it at the location (nor any other location eg: C drive etc..)
But here is the kicker: I can open the file she downloaded anywhere she saves it !! We all have the same patches, updates, versions of everything. Nothing (at least what IT would admit to) has changed on her computer. (**She is able to open the files if I download them !!)

What should I be looking for? We both have Windows XP, IE 7, same unzip applications (we tried winzip, the built in compressed (ZIP) folders on the right click menu)

The only combination that does not work is my associate downloading the file and trying to unzip it.

Any other combination of downloading & unzipping works.

Frustrating -

Thank you for looking !

Michael

[DaveA]

Find the file in Windows explorer, then Right click and select "Open With". Then select the zipping program that you want to use and see it the file will will 'unzip'.

[Michael Abrams]

That's the issue - if she downloads the file , I can unzip it, but she cannot (using any unzip app).

If I download it, she can unzip it fine.

Oy !

[Bigaldoc]

I'm sorry to say that I don't know enough about FTP "permissions" to guide you. But that's what it sounds like to me, rather than something on either of your local computers.

The gist of the problem seems to be in HER "getting" the file from the FTP location. Maybe there's something the client has to do to give your associate the proper permissions. Sounds crazy I know, especially in light of the fact that she CAN download the file but can't open it - AND you can.

[John Gray]

I'm afraid I disagree with Al, because once the file has been downloaded locally, we are dealing only with user permissions, NTFS file permissions (I presume NTFS?) or ZIP file passwords.

Can you inspect the security permissions of the file as seen on both your PCs? (The usual right click -> Properties -> Security tab).

And is your account set as Administrator but your associate/hench-person's account a mere User?

[Michael Abrams]

I will have IT check the profiles (admin vs user) BUT - it worked fine for her for the same 8 years as me ! Nothing has changed (permissions, profiles) in the last couple of weeks and this just started about a month ago.

It just stopped working ! And I do have a friend inside IT, who swears nothing has been done to her machine.

Weird !

But I will look into the permissions and profiles.

Thank you !

Michael

[BobH]

Stepping out onto a very small limb here . . .

Is it possible that the file is encrypted? You didn't mention that in your post, only that it came from a client's secure FTP server. It is possible - maybe - that an encryption key has been contaminated on her machine but not on yours.

If there is no issue of encryption, my guess is that some setting in her FTP client might have changed without notice. In my (very limited) experience with FTP client software, there are options and variables stored in client software to do the proper handshake between server and client. If any of those variables have changed (in some FTP software I've used this does not require an IT tech to accomplish; they are user panels), it might have affected file permissions on the receiving side. Is it possible that the colleague has inadvertently made such a change and forgotten about it?

Must leave, the limb is cracking and I'm about to . . .
F
A
L
L.

THUD!! THUMP!!!

[Michael Abrams]

The files are encrypted !!

Is a corrupt encryption key something an (experienced) IT person would/should know how to find and correct?

Thanks for the leads fellas !!

Michael

[BobH]

In my experience, yes, an experienced IT tech should be able to deal with helping a user through an encryption key corruption problem; however, it is not expected that the tech would know the key or actually have access to it. (I say this based on many years in IT dealing transmitted files since the days before the Internet and in dealing with encryption and issues related to encryption in running a regional multi-bank shared ATM network. In today's world of the PC and the Internet, some organizations might choose not to engage professionals knowledgeable in this area both as a cost-saving measure and as a security measure (compartmentalization of information). This question is best asked of whomever has the responsibility for IT at an executive level.

Usually (at least in my experience), corrupted encryption keys are replaced with new keys through a secure process between the parties who need the keys (again, usually on 2 parties). I would think that the IT tech - knowing that encryption is involved - would be able to institute the process to generate new keys and to exchange them securely and install access to the secured keys for a user. In a properly implemented system, the tech would be able to do this without ever having knowledge of the actual encryption key values.

Sounds a bit like double-talk, I know; but encryption covers a wide range of techniques for key generation and for key management allowing only the necessary parties to have access only to information each must have.

My knowledge in this area is dated. I'm certain that practices have changed, but someone in your organization and in your client's organization should know the protocol for key management to include replacement of keys. What puzzles me (from my experience in this area) is that both you and your colleague were able to access encrypted files . . . that is that before the onset of the problem each of you could unzip and use the files. Perhaps the encryption technology in use entails multiple keys or shared keys.

Also, don't forget, that my guess is just that - a guess. It is quite possible that your problem is not related to encryption.

HTH