A router. What's your network setup? Have you forwarded port 21 (or 20 for this other ftp server you've tried)?

Use probe my ports:
https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

To see if 21 is open.

If it is, then we know that's not the problem. Tell me about your network setup, and also which distro it is you are trying this on.

Cool

21 is open. (Don't know about 20, but I can tell it to listen on 21, so that's ok.)
I'm using Mandrake 9.0, on the binghamton U campus network, but they don't block anything that I know of (esp. since the port is open). No routers, &c of my own. I'm rather stumped, actually :-/

Ok, sorry to suggest this, but it's an idea...

Uninstall vsftp and put proftpd back on. Then, check the log files (which are defined in the proftpd.conf file) and post em up. On my system it's located /var/log/proftpd.log and /var/log/xfer.log

So you might see what's going on there. Also, you might look at other logs, maybe there is one for your vsftp that you could look at. Either way, just try to find a reason on why it won't connect, it'll make troubleshooting that much easier ;) If you have questions on the files, post up the files so we can take a look at em.

Cool

Ok, no problem. But before I do that, I took a look through the daemon error logs in general, and /var/log/daemons/errors has been getting this:
for the last however long it's been.
I'm not entirely sure what all that means, but if it's not helpful then I'll just do the reinstall.
Thanks!
Laura

Are you running your own DNS/bind server? Or just a normal network setup through the college, where you specify a remote DNS server in /etc/resolv.conf (or do you run DHCP to find your IP)?

Cool

DHCP to get an IP on bootup.

Since your port is open, you can ftp into your localhost just fine, and you are sure you are using the correct IP to ftp in with (check here ) I am becoming quite stumpt without those error log files (/var/log/proftpd.log and /var/log/xferlog)

The main difference from ftp://localhost and ftp://actualip is your request. ftp://localhost goes straight from your command to your computer, it processes the request locally and gives instant feedback. ftp://actual-ip sends the request out of your PC to your ISP's server (or similar) translates the IP to your line, sends the request back into your computer (very simplified, but shows that the request actually leaves the box). So it would appear that if:
ftp localhost
is working fine and
ftp 1.2.3.4
isn't, then it would be a network problem much more than an application error. The proftp error log will show you that, or xferlog might; either way, that's something to go with for now ;)

Cool

OK.
Unfortunately, I'm not home now, and won't be back at my computer 'til tomorrow night. When I get home, though, I'll post those error logs and see if we can't get this thing figured out. Thank you very much!

Laura

OK, I uninstalled vsftp, reinstalled proftpd and configured it to start via xinetd (http://forums.devshed.com/archive/33/2002/07/4/40004)
Now, no matter what IP I try to connect to, I get "connection refused" (even 127.0.0.1). There isn't anything in /var/log/xferlog, but /var/log/daemons/errors ends with this:
There's no sight of a proftpd error log anywhere, unless it's under some other name :-/.

You set that in your proftpd.conf file; mine is:
/var/log/proftpd.log and here is the entry in my conf file:
Cool

:o ok, let me see what that generates

I tried that, still running it through xinetd...I think there was still something wrong in that setup, so I changed the ServerType back to standalone, stopped xinetd, and started proftpd. Now, at least, I'm back to the errors I was getting initially.

Here's the output of proftpd.log, once I changed it back to standalone (it wasn't outputting anything before that, which makes me think that it wasn't getting started at all):

The "Login Successful" entry is where I connected using "ftp 127.0.0.1". The error messages are when I tried "ftp 128.226.198.93".
Still nothing in xferlog, as I can't connect enough to transfer anything :)

I don't see any errors there... Are there actual errors in proftpd.log when you connect to ftp://128.226.198.93 ?

Or none at all, and syslog shows nothing either? How about /var/log/messages?

Cool

Here is what I get when I try to ftp into your IP:
What that looks like to me is that either your uni has some setup that won't allow you to run an FTP server (maybe several PC's share the same outside IP, via some sort of NAT), or your proftpd.conf file isn't setup correctly (post it up so I/we can take a look).

Cool

Contents of /usr/local/etc/proftpd.conf:

# This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file (rename it to
# 'proftpd.conf' for actual use. It establishes a single server
# and a single anonymous login. It assumes that you have a user/group
# "nobody" and "ftp" for normal operation and anon.

ServerName "ProFTPD Default Installation"
ServerAdmin "somebody@SomewhereNotHere.com"
ServerIdent off
ServerType standalone
DefaultServer off
SystemLog /var/log/proftpd.log
TransferLog /var/log/xferlog

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port 21

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new dirs and files
# from being group and world writable.
Umask 022

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30. If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value. Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd).
MaxInstances 30

# Set the user and group under which the server will run.
User nobody
Group nogroup

<Global>
RequireValidShell off
LoginPasswordPrompt off
<Limit LOGIN>
DenyUser anonymous
</Limit>
MaxLoginAttempts 3
# To cause every FTP user to be "jailed" (chrooted) into a directory,
# uncomment this line.
DefaultRoot /var/www/UPLOADS
AllowStoreRestart on
AllowRetrieveRestart on
# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
<Directory /*>
AllowOverwrite on
</Directory>
</Global>

# A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories. If you do not
# want anonymous users, simply delete this entire <Anonymous> section.
#<Anonymous ~ftp>
# User ftp
# Group ftp

# # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
# UserAlias anonymous ftp

# # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
# MaxClients 10

# # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, and '.message' displayed
# # in each newly chdired directory.
# DisplayLogin welcome.msg
# DisplayFirstChdir .message

# # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
# <Limit WRITE>
# DenyAll
# </Limit>
#</Anonymous>