Home FTP server - Can use FTP program but not IE or Windows Explorer to get to it?

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I've got an FTP server running at home, which if I use something like WSFTP I can log on fine etc.

However, although I'll swear it worked to start off with, now when I try and log on to the server with Internet Explorer, Firefox or Windows Explorer, I get to the logon details but that's it... It will not actually connected and list the folders...

Anyone encountered this?

ps: I'm trying to log on from a machine outside my network over the internet etc
 
zen62619 said:
Which version of IE?

IE 7
Firefox - Latest version

It did work at one point because I recall in Windows Explorer (NOT IE) I could drag and drop files to/from the server...
 
NeilFawcett said:
IE 7
Firefox - Latest version

It did work at one point because I recall in Windows Explorer (NOT IE) I could drag and drop files to/from the server...

Alright, and your certain it's logging you into the server? or don't you get this far?

Can you turn loggin on, try access it both methods and check the logs.

With explorer you authenticate, which fetches the file list in explorer view.

Using FTP clients are much better than using IE/FF/WE.
 
zen62619 said:
Alright, and your certain it's logging you into the server? or don't you get this far?

Can you turn loggin on, try access it both methods and check the logs.

With explorer you authenticate, which fetches the file list in explorer view.

Using FTP clients are much better than using IE/FF/WE.

Yes, with Windows Explorer.. I type (for example) ftp://neil.myhomeip.net and it definately asks for the logon, and then says 'Getting contents of folder'... and then after a while returns a 'operation timed out' error - 'An error occured opening that folder on the FTP server'.

Try the same with WSFTP and straight in...


I'll swear it used to work... Dragging and dropping with Windows Explorer is obviously very user friendly!
 
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NeilFawcett said:
Yes, with Windows Explorer.. I type (for example) neil.myhomeip.net and it definately asks for the logon, and then says 'Getting contents of folder'... and then after a while returns a 'operation timed out' error - 'An error occured opening that folder on the FTP server'.

Try the same with WSFTP and straight in...


I'll swear it used to work... Dragging and dropping with Windows Explorer is obviously very user friendly!

Try this

ftp://username : password@domain_name

No spaces betweek username and : and password. It turns into a face on this forum.
 
Try turning off passive transfers in IE/firefox to see if that works.

If your FTP server is behind a firewall/NAT, then you'll have to configure the firewall to accept, or the NAT to forward the port range used for passive transfers - and perhaps also the IP address that it is reporting to clients (behind NAT, an FTP server will generally pass a LAN IP address to a remote client, which the remote client will never be able to connect to)
 
matja said:
Try turning off passive transfers in IE/firefox to see if that works.

If your FTP server is behind a firewall/NAT, then you'll have to configure the firewall to accept, or the NAT to forward the port range used for passive transfers - and perhaps also the IP address that it is reporting to clients (behind NAT, an FTP server will generally pass a LAN IP address to a remote client, which the remote client will never be able to connect to)

If it works in an ftp client, then it should work in FF/IE/WE.

Has nothing to do with the NAT or firewall as port 21 works with the FTP client.
 
NeilFawcett said:
Skips the logon, but otherwise the same outcome...

Are you talking about work to home, or other people to home or home to work or whatever?

What sort of network your talking about ouside of your lan?
 
matja said:
Try turning off passive transfers in IE/firefox to see if that works.

If your FTP server is behind a firewall/NAT, then you'll have to configure the firewall to accept, or the NAT to forward the port range used for passive transfers - and perhaps also the IP address that it is reporting to clients (behind NAT, an FTP server will generally pass a LAN IP address to a remote client, which the remote client will never be able to connect to)

Turning off passive mode in IE solved it!!!!!!!

Are you able to explain what the passive mode thing is? I assume then WSFTP isn't using it? I do recall seeing some option in the FTP server regarding it?!
 
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NeilFawcett said:
Turned off passive mode in IE and no improvement...

If WSFTP can connect to the FTP site then why would IE or Windows Explorer etc be any different?

It aint different at all. If you can connect in FTP client then it sounds like its the IE settings or FF settings. Does not explain why you can't access it in WE though. Try a different FTP server just to check. Try This:

http://www.pablosoftwaresolutions.com/html/quick__n_easy_ftp_server.html
 
NeilFawcett said:
Turned off passive mode in IE solved it!!!!!!!

If WSFTP can connect to the FTP site then why would IE or Windows Explorer etc be any different?

Excellent news.
 
NeilFawcett said:
Turned off passive mode in IE solved it!!!!!!!

If WSFTP can connect to the FTP site then why would IE or Windows Explorer etc be any different?

Most 'real' clients use active transfers by default, most browsers use passive transfers by default. Not sure on the reasoning of that, but passive mode generally works through more firewall configurations (provided the remote server is correctly configured)

This is an example of the mess that NAT gives us, and which IPv6 fixes :)
 
zen62619 said:
It aint different at all. If you can connect in FTP client then it sounds like its the IE settings or FF settings. Does not explain why you can't access it in WE though. Try a different FTP server just to check. Try This:

http://www.pablosoftwaresolutions.com/html/quick__n_easy_ftp_server.html

With the passive mode, don't I need some ports forwarded on the router? Maybe I've done something stupid in the sofware like turn off passive mode or something?
 
NeilFawcett said:
With the passive mode, don't I need some ports forwarded on the router? Maybe I've done something stupid in the sofware like turn off passive mode or something?

Thought you got it working?
 
NeilFawcett said:
I did, but the FTP server is for my friends and I don't want all them to have to dig around in IE options to get it to work...

* sigh* tell them to get a client setup.

Sorry but its the only way. A Guide because theres nothing simple in the ftp world.
 
zen62619 said:
* sigh* tell them to get a client setup.

Sorry but its the only way. A Guide because theres nothing simple in the ftp world.

I'll double check my 'passive' settings back on the server... And see if I need any ports forwarded etc...

If my friends can just type an address in windows explorer and then drag/drop natively that's far easier than installing and running an application...
 
If you run a FTP server behind a NAT router, when the client sends the "PASV" command to tell the server to give the client an IP address and port to connect to, to start the data transfer (file or directory listing), the server should send the public IP of the router, and the port(s) should be forwarded _from_ the router to the server.

Without any additional configuration, an FTP server behind a NAT router will not know this information, and it'll just send out its LAN IP address, to which the remote client will not be able to connect to.

Obviously this now becomes a problem when a FTP client on the LAN tries to transfer in passive mode, because the FTP server is telling the client to connect to the public IP address instead of the proper LAN address ;) - some FTP servers are clever enough to see that the client is on a local subnet or not and send the correct IP address - I know Filezilla Server for Windows does.

So if you're just running the FTP server behind a firewall (no NAT):

- open a port range in your firewall to use by the FTP server, 10 or so will do, but if you get transfer errors, you might want to increase tat.
- tell your FTP server to use the same ports in its passive transfer settings

FTP server behind NAT :

- forward a port range from your router to the IP of the FTP server on the LAN
- open those ports in its firewall, if applicable
- tell your FTP server to use the same ports in its passive transfer settings
- tell your FTP server to use the public IP address of the router (FileZilla server on Windows, and ProFTPd on Linux allow you to put a hostname - ie a dyndns.org address to lookup.
 
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