hi people,

i just got a ftp server running. here is the deal. i am behind a router with one win2000 and one slackware box. the ftp i mainy set up to share files easily between those computers.

Question:
lets say i want my friend to access my ftp server to get some mp3 from me (over the internet). as i am behind a rounter, which ip address do i have to give him/her for him/her to connect to my ftp server?

i don't think it's the ip address that the router assigns for the pc's. and if it's the ip address which my internet provider gives me, and my friend tries to connect to my ftp server how will his/her pc know which of the 2 pc's i have he/she has to connect to.


thanks in advance

You will need to give your friend the IP address of your router and then change the configuration of your router to forward port 21 to the local ip address of your ftp server.

I use this to verify my ip seen from outside :

or a little easier to remember:
lynx -dump http://www.whatismyip.com | grep Your | cut -d" " -f 4

Remember that this won't work if you have a proxy outside your network.

when you're running an ftp server from behind a router it will probably not work with the standard settings.
1st problem you can encounter is that some internet providers block most ports under 1024 to prevent you from running servers. This is not a big problem and easy to fix
assuming you are using proftpd you can edit /etc/proftpd.conf (you'll need to do this as root)
change "Port 21" to whaterver port you want to use.
now when you want to connect to the server you'll have to specify the port for example ftp://213.119.xxx.xxx:2000 when you're using port 2000
2nd problem is that you probably have to use passive ftp when the server is behind a router.
for a small ftpserver with only a few connections at a time you'll only need 5 or 6 passive ports.
you can use this by adding a passive portrange to you're /etc/proftpd.conf
"PassivePorts 49152 49156" add this to your config file.
you can add it anywhere but to keep the file readeble ad it after the port settings
3rd problem will be that you'll need to forward these prorts to you're computer in you're router settings.
i don't know how you do this with the router you're using but normaly you can log in to the router using a webbrowser.
There should be some settings for port forwarding or virtual server.
here you'll need to add all the ports the server will use (2000, and all the passive ports).