I've suffered from an inability to publish websites for some weeks - exactly the same problem, the transfer hangs at about 2% and then fails - yet when the test connection button is used under the publish settings it confirms that a suitable connection is made! - sites publish correctly to the hard disc, so the publishing element seems OK - I've checked firewalls and other software such as malware checkers, but to no avail - any suggestions will be gratefully received.

My main PC is Windows 8.1 with IE 11 - however, I've resorted to using an old laptop running Windows XP and IE8 to get my sites away - which works!!!