Linux What is wrong with my FTP server?

I'm not sure if this should be in here or the Linux/Open Source forum. But I figured I'd try in here first. I have a box at home running Debian Linux and I have ProFTPd running on that box. It is behind a Linksys BEFSR41 dsl router.

When I'm on my Windows2K box at home (also behind the router) I can connect to the FTP on debian box using both the internal and external ip addresses. When I try to get to the server from work I get a popup message from Internet Explorer telling me something about my proxy not allowing me to view ftp servers blah blah. I figure that is just something they have set up here on our network. I have also tried with FTPExplorer. It says connection established then error connecting to... I also tried it in BlazeFTP and it just keeps timing out. But that is FTPExplorer and BlazFTP here at work again. When I try it from somewhere else, say a friend's machine, I get page cannot be displayed.

I'm pretty sure that I have all of the ports open correctly on my router to allow ftp. I have port 21 for ftp and 50000 - 50100 for ftp-pasv opened and forwarded to the debian machine. When I look in the logs on the debian box I can see where ftpuser attempts to connect. It says they connected. Then it says they disconnected.

So what else can I look at?

 

RTT@Will's account:
That would be something to do with the proxy at your works connection. Tried any other FTPs to make sure? ftp://ftp.slackware.com

 

I just tried the slackware ftp and I can get to it fine. The message I get about the proxy here at work says that everything will be read only because the proxy will not allow anything else. But I can get to slackware and browse around and all. So I'm guessing it's something in my FTP configuration? But then why can I view it from my machine at home? Maybe I'll have to check my router again too. Make sure everything is working there.

 

Try running it in the DMZ on your router? Maybe it needs more than just port 21. Sometimes 23 and 21 (or one of the two) I think have to be opened.

 

20 and 21 is standard. 23 is telnet iirc.

 

That was it Knew it was around there somewhere...

 

Interesting. I went home and tried to connect to the FTP using http://www.net2ftp.com/ just to test it out. And I connect fine. So....I guess it's working? I didn't change anything. Maybe I'll set up everything at dyndns and see what happens. Thanks for the help guys and for moving the thread.

 

You are using the correct mode aren't you? PASV is what you need to use from your client

 

I'm trying PASV from work. I get timeouts...so I'm still thinking that it's a bust from work. But from my friend's house, he only has Internet Explorer, and it is probably using port mode. I'll check that. If I wanted it to be able to use port mode, would I have to setup something different on my FTP config?

 

I think I have determined the problem. Firstly, I think it's because I'm trying to use ProFTPd. If I had used WU-ftp or something else, I might not even have this problem, but I don't know that for sure. Anyway, turns out that ProFTPd (at least) needs me to do a few other things and install a few more packages because my router uses NAT.

Essentially, I have to manually (via ip-masquerade) define the ip address (or domain name) that the ftp server is masquerading as. And then I also have to define the ports that I will be using for PASV mode. Finally I will have to explicitly link (not sure how else to say it) the linux box's ip to the masquerading ip and then define the ftp ports.

Sounds like a lot of fiddling, but I don't think it will be that bad. I'll tackle it when I get home tonite and see what I can do.