[wplug] On the subject of FTP...

[Carl Benedict]

On Wed, 2005-01-19 at 19:20, Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> I just configured an anonymous FTP server on my box here, and placed it on 
> the nonstandard port of 10021.  By default (and as desired) it uses ports 
> 49152-65535 for negotiating passive FTP sessions, and so I have opened my 
> firewall to incoming packets from those ports.
> 
> Everything works fine, though on windows machines, for uploading, I have 
> to use IE (or a dedicated FTP client program) since Mozilla Firefox 
> doesn't support FTP uploads.  The problem is that Windows FTP clients 
> (both IE and command-line FTP.EXE) fail when the client computer is behind 
> a firewall.  Mozilla Firefox does not fail on the self-same computer in 
> the same situation.  But again, it doesn't upload.
> 
> I get the sense that this is an M$ problem and this may be the wrong forum 
> to discuss it... but Windows users not being able to use their native FTP 
> clients really hinders the server's usefulness (the only two times I've 
> had a chance to use it were both hindered by the fact that the client 
> users couldn't connect).  I would thus like to fix this problem... is 
> there *anything* I can do from my end?  Web searching has produced a few 
> pages that hint at the existence of the problem, but I haven't found any 
> 'smoking gun' page stating "Windows FTP clients are BROKEN!"
> 
> 'Proof', based on the "Google Boolean Evaluation principle [1]":
> 
>   /-------------------------------------------------------------------
>   | Your search - "Windows FTP clients are broken" - did not match any
>   | documents.
>   |
>   | Suggestions:
>   |
>   |   - Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
>   |   - Try different keywords.
>   |   - Try more general keywords.
>   |
>   | Also, you can try Google Answers for expert help with your search.
>   \--------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> -Brandon
> 
> [1] see http://301south.net/works/thoughts/gbep.html (if you really want 
> to know)
> What's curious is that, once this email is archived, "Windows FTP clients 
> are BROKEN" will return a positive result on a google search....
> 
> 
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I believe this is because the Windows ftp.exe doesn't support 'passive'
ftp mode (aka the PASV command).  You could have the Windows users open
port 21 on their firewalls, or do a port forward of port 21 on their end
to the machine behind their firewall trying to access the server.  This
probably isn't an ideal solution for you though, but should work.

HTH

-- 
Carl Benedict
Pittsburgh Techs
Main:  724-741-0233
http://www.pittsburghtechs.com
cbenedic at pittsburghtechs.com