Hello there. I am trying to get ftp server up and running but have run into some problems. I have set up vsftpd to run through xinetd. I have changed /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf appropriately so as to use user name/password type account. When i connect form my own computer (localhost) it all works fine. When a remote computer tries to access i get 'operation timed out'
Not sure what to do. Any help would be much appreciated. Here are the details

Here is what I've got:
----------------------------
RedHat Linux 9
vsftpd-1.1.3-8
xinetd-2.3.11-1.9.0
ADSL modem: D-Link DSL-300T (updated firmware)
Other servers running: Apache Tomcat

Here is vsftpd.conf
----------------------------
# Example config file /etc/vsftpd.conf
#
# The default compiled in settings are very paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP?
anonymous_enable=NO
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
local_umask=022
#
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
#anon_upload_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
#
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
xferlog_enable=YES
#
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
#
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
#xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
#
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format
xferlog_std_format=YES
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
#
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
#
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
#
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that turning on ascii_download_enable enables malicious remote parties
# to consume your I/O resources, by issuing the command "SIZE /big/file" in
# ASCII mode.
# These ASCII options are split into upload and download because you may wish
# to enable ASCII uploads (to prevent uploaded scripts etc. from breaking),
# without the DoS risk of SIZE and ASCII downloads. ASCII mangling should be
# on the client anyway..
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
#
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
ftpd_banner=Welcome to Giaxs' FTP service.
#
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd.banned_emails
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
#
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
#
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
#enable for standalone mode
listen=NO


Here is /etc/xinetd.d/vsftpd
#default: off
# description: The vsftpd FTP server serves FTP connections. It uses \
# normal, unencrypted usernames and passwords for authentication.
service ftp
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/vsftpd
nice = 10
}


Thank you in advance

iptables may be restricting access on those ports.Disable iptables with 'service iptables stop' and see if you can connect from a remote host. If so then you need to let iptables know that it should accept anything on port 20 and 21.

Thank for your response. I have made some progress.

So far i have been using IE and ftp clients (flash fxp) to connect to my server remotely and i get get the problem outlined above. However, with the following command i can see the remote computer connecting:
netstat -a | grep ftp
So i tried connecting to the server from a dos prompt and i saw that the connection was successful. I also noticed i could cd my way around the directories on the server successfully. i can also pwd successfully. What i cannot do is get a directory listing. I tried dir, ls, ls -l but non of these work. the remote pc just hangs after i enter the dir command and i need to cntrl C to terminate the connection.
It seems like the directory listing command is not accepted form my server. I presume this command is issued from IE and ftp clients when connecting to visualise the directory listing.

Not sure what to do about this.

by the way i tried disabling ip tables but the same situation arises. Given the above i dont think this is a related issue