Hello

I am trying to set up vsftpd program for an ftp server on mandrake 9.1. I have installed everything, and i have set it up for "standalone" mode. I can run the server, and when i am on my own computer i can open mozilla and type

ftp://(my ip address)

and it takes me to the correct place. however, it doesn't work from an external computer. does anyone know what the problem could be?

thanks for the help

There can be tons of reasons for not working. First, if you are behind a router with multiple computers in the network, your local ip address won't work, you need to use port forwarding to forward the ftp port to your computer. Your router (if you bought one) usually allows you to do this, if you enter the local address of the router in your mozilla. If you only have one computer, you need to open the port which allows incoming connections, which you can do with iptables. Become root and type

iptables -A INPUT -t filter -p tcp --dport ftp -j ACCEPT

You need to have iptables configured in your kernel for this to work.

it's strange because i have now tried it using xinetd and that situation is even worse. if i try to connect locally it just says "the document is empty", and again remote access is impossible.

i only have one ip address, so i think it should work.

i typed what you said and restarted xinetd but that didn't help\

i also reconfigured to standalone and tried again but it still doesn't work

Here's a place I found that gives you a step by step on how to setup a Linux FTP server using vsftp

This is what I used to set mine up for testing. Worked like a charm.

Hope this helps you out.

that's what i used to set it up the xinetd way, and when i type the
netstat -a | grep ftp

i get the output it says i should be getting. but i still can't connect from remote locations

What type of error are you getting when you try to log on remotely? Are you running software firewall (e.g. iptables) or hardware firewall/router?