FTP Issues
 

Again a weird one, or at least it appears as such to me at the moment. I'm logged on to my xp desktop as I usually am and I'm ssh'd to 2 boxes, to my hosted dedicated server and my linux box at home. I have never had any issues ftp'ing from my dedicated server to my linux box at home until now. I have not made any changes what so ever so this is why I find this strange. when I try to ftp from dedicated server to my linux box at home.. it just times out. if I try to ftp from my xp command prompt to my home server, it works fine! I'm not sure where the problem is and could use some tips from anyone.

thanks!

Chris

You're ssh'd in to your Linux box at home from the dedicated server or from the same place you ssh'd into the XP box?

It may simply be you can't get to your Linux box at home from the dedicated server. Can you ping from the dedicated server to your home box? Can you trace route?

What command do you type on the dedicated server? What OS does the dedicated server have? What messages/issues do you see when you try the ftp from the dedicated server?

Note that ssh uses a completely different port than ftp. Also there are other ftp utilities that aren't really ftp (e.g. sftp - it is a file transfer using port 22 normally).

Speaking of which you really ought to disable ftp and consider using scp/sftp. ftp is very insecure. You can still do scp from your XP by downloading and using WinSCP.

It will really help if you could re-phrase your question and also your observations. Meanwhile, do a simple test:-

Ping your home server from your XP box and from the dedicated Linux server. If you are not able to ping the home Linux box from dedicated server then better check if there is any Firewall in between. However, if you are able to ping the box then it means that the Gateway (or firewall) in between the dedicated box to Linux home box must be having its port number 21 closed.

Here is another test to figure this out:-

[Dedicated machine]$ telnet <home-machine> 21

Let me know of the results you get.

Hope it helps!!
Rahul.

Hi
 

Thanks for the reply.

I have always been able to ftp from my dedicated server (Fedora Core4) to my linux box at home running CentOS4 without issues until just today.. without my having done any changes to any services or IPtables on either boxes.

I am currently on an XP machine (where I work from sometimes) and I have established an ssh connection to my dedicated server and to my linux box at home... as usual.

from the dedicated server, I can ssh to my linux box but I cannot ftp to it as I have always been able to in the past... it just times out.

I can also ping all boxes from any which way.

to test, I tried to ftp from the xp box the my linux box and I was able to without any problems.

The problem is why am I not able to ftp from my dedicated box anymore... that is the question.

Hopefully this more clear.

Thanks

Well it answers all the questions except for what exactly is happening when you try it? What exactly are you typing when you try it?

Also the post above gave the suggestion of trying to telnet to port 21 (the one used by ftp) to see if it will open the port from the dedicated server to your home. What happens when you try that?

Update
 

It would seem that from my dedicated server.. I can't get out anyhwere. can't ping out and no getting anywhere with traceroutes:

#traceroute mybox.homeunix.com
traceroute to mybox.homeunix.com (74.97.197.143), 30 hops max, 46 byte packets
1 * * *
2 * * *
3 * * *
4 * * *
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 * * *
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 *

now that is obviously an issue. I've since my first post flushed iptables.. would that prevent my from going out?

What are the settings which you have configured in IPtables? I would like to see them..

As you told that you are unable to ping outside world.. Try to take a look at the ARP and routing tables to figure out if any route is "complete". If not, then look at the Network interface and try to ping the gateway.

Here are the are the rules based on the following command:

# iptables -L
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

this is my route output:

# route
Kernel IP Routentabelle
Ziel Router Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
10.255.255.1 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
default 10.255.255.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

Arp
 

arp output:

# arp
Address HWtype HWaddress Flags Mask Iface
10.255.255.1 ether 00:00:0C:07:AC:00 C eth0

I still can't ping my gateway 10.255.255.1 for reasons unknown to me...