FTP Connection issues! Can someone pls help me troublshoot this?

esanto1 · 06-12-2013, 01:15 AM

Hi,

I'm running Mint 14 on Parallels 8 and am having an issue with ftp. I'm trying to connect to ftp.iinet.net.au and can get there and successfully log in as anonymous however when I get to the prompt after logging in, if I type the 'ls' command, I get an error. Below is the output I'm seeing:

Code:

230-Welcome to the iiFTP Server.
230-
230-News:
230-
230-:: RESUMED DOWNLOADS ::
230-
230-If you are attempting to resume a download over 2gb in 
230-size via FTP you may encounter problems if you have 
230-already passed the 2gb mark of the file.  We suggest
230-using rsync or HTTP if you are downloading files 
230-greater than 2gb in size until this is resolved.
230-
230-CentOS Mirror added.
230-
230 Anonymous access granted, restrictions apply
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
421 Service not available, remote server has closed connection
ftp>

If I connect to the same ftp server via osx terminal, I can connect and successfully issue the ls command and see the correct output. I know the output is correct as I can access the ftp site via my browser and compared the results to the osx terminal session.

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this one so any help would be appreciated.

esanto1 · 06-12-2013, 01:17 AM

Also, after I get the error from issuing the 'ls' command, I ran the 'status' command and below is the output:

Code:

ftp> status
Not connected.
No proxy connection.
Connecting using address family: any.
Mode: stream; Type: binary; Form: non-print; Structure: file
Verbose: on; Bell: off; Prompting: on; Globbing: on
Store unique: off; Receive unique: off
Case: off; CR stripping: on
Quote control characters: on
Ntrans: off
Nmap: off
Hash mark printing: off; Use of PORT cmds: on
Tick counter printing: off

esanto1 · 06-12-2013, 05:39 PM

does anyone have any advice on linux log files I could possibly check to see what's happening?

I did another test today and as soon as I connect, if I issue the 'status' command it does say that I'm connected to ftp.iinet.net.au however it must disconnect shortly thereafter because when I issue the command again it says I'm disconnected.

I know the issue is not firewall related either but am not sure where else I can check to troubleshoot this one.

Z038 · 06-12-2013, 05:51 PM

I don't think you'll find anything in log files on your system. I suspect you'd need to look at the log files on the server. But just in case, check your /var/log/syslog and /var/log/messages.

I was able to login to that site and get a directory listing.

Code:

$ ftp ftp.iinet.net.au
Connected to ftp.iinet.net.au.
220 ProFTPD 1.3.1 Server (Debian) [::ffff:10.2.42.82]
Name (ftp.iinet.net.au:s): anonymous
331 Anonymous login ok, send your complete email address as your password
Password:
230-Welcome to the iiFTP Server.
230-
230-News:
230-
230-:: RESUMED DOWNLOADS ::
230-
230-If you are attempting to resume a download over 2gb in 
230-size via FTP you may encounter problems if you have 
230-already passed the 2gb mark of the file.  We suggest
230-using rsync or HTTP if you are downloading files 
230-greater than 2gb in size until this is resolved.
230-
230-CentOS Mirror added.
230-
230 Anonymous access granted, restrictions apply
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp       1048576 Sep 23  2003 1mb.dat
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      65535000 Oct  7  2009 2test.out
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      13631488 Mar 17  2004 adsl.test
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      20971520 Apr 22  2005 adsl.test2
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftp      ftp            16 Sep 15  2008 debian -> pub/linux/debian
drwxr-xr-x  14 ftp      ftp            14 Aug 17  2011 download_vault
drwxr-xr-x   3 ftp      ftp             3 Oct 12  2012 games
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftp      ftp             9 Sep 15  2008 linux -> pub/linux
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      50700614 Jun 12 03:31 ls-R.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp            18 Sep 16  2009 notfound.html
drwxr-xr-x  62 ftp      ftp            65 Jun 12 05:32 pub
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp           191 May 19  2006 rsyncd.motd
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      100000000 Sep 25  2008 test100MB.dat
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftp      ftp            16 May  2  2012 test100MB.dat.special -> ../test100MB.dat
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      10000000 Sep 25  2008 test10MB.dat
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftp      ftp            25 Oct  1  2009 test10MB_b.dat -> ../speedtest/test10MB.dat
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      500000000 Nov 17  2008 test500MB.dat
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp      50000000 Sep 26  2008 test50MB.dat
-rw-r--r--   1 ftp      ftp           346 Jan 12  2009 welcome.msg
lrwxrwxrwx   1 ftp      ftp            11 Sep 15  2008 welcome.txt -> welcome.msg
226 Transfer complete
ftp>

esanto1 · 06-12-2013, 05:58 PM

Hi Z038,

I wouldn't have thought it was a server issue as I am able to connect to the server from osx on the same machine. Its just the Linux vm that's not working.

Nonetheless, I will contact the ISP and see if they can help.

Thanks

esanto1 · 06-12-2013, 06:29 PM

Looks like I may have fixed this one.

By default, Parallels was creating another 10Net subnet and assigning the Linux vm an IP from that. This 10Net is different from my main subnet that all my other machines/devices (including the osx host) are assigned IP's from. This has worked in the past without issue until now.

What I did was shutdown the VM and go into the network settings in Parallels. The default setting was 'Shared Network' and I changed this to 'Default Adapter'. When I restarted the vm and checked my IP, I was now assigned an IP from the main IP subnet, the same as other devices on my home network. Re-tested the FTP connection and it worked and stayed up. I tried navigating to other folders on the ftp server too and everything worked! I did try calling the ISP as well but they couldn't help or didn't know how to.

I wouldn't have thought that the IP I was being assigned would have made a difference as it would have been PAT'd to my public IP and just assigned another port. If anyone has any views on this, I'd be interested to hear them.

Whilst this issue is resolved, it has raised another question. How do I view active connections in the vm? On the osx host, I could ftp to the server and from another terminal run 'netstat -l | grep "ftp"' and see the active ftp connection. When I try that in the vm, it comes up with nothing. I've also manually looked through the output of the 'netstat -l' command and there is no mention of ftp whatsoever even though I have kept the ftp session active. Any ideas on this?