Ron Rosenfeld said:
The Subject states my problem
I have Windows XP SP3 with the standard Windows Firewall set up.
If I have the Windows firewall enabled, I am unable to connect to an
FTP site using either Firefox 3.5.2, IE8 or a standalone ftp client
(FileZilla 3.2.7.1).
These programs are all listed as "Exceptions" in the Firewall.
I have also tried listing Port 21 (TCP protocol) as an exception but
without results. The ftp connection remains blocked.
The scope on all these exceptions if for "any computer(including
those on the Internet).
If I turn off the firewall, the connection goes through without
difficulty.
Any hints on how to configure things to allow me to connect to ftp
servers without disabling the Windows Firewall?
--ron
Hi Ron,
This apparently has happened to a lot of people within the last couple
of weeks. Just this morning I finally got it to work again, for my case
at least so I'll give you what I know. I'm sure there are other
possibilities, but this one seems the most likely. In my case I use ftp
to update web sites and it just suddenly "quit working" for me. There
are posts all over the web about it, but not many solutions and the ones
that were there didn't work.
Symptoms were:
ftp sign-in OK, PW accepted, reacted to PASV OK (passive mode entry),
etc, but when the LIST command was sent, it just sat there until it
timed out and gave the message "Failed to retrieve directory listing".
It didn't seem right that it could be a firewall based on the successful
ftp sign-in, etc, but that's what it was.
Somewhere along the line, either an MS udate or a modem update caused
my NAT firewall to start blocking ftp LIST commands but gave me NO hints
in any of its logs.
If you have a NAT router, set it for its lowest security setting and see
if it works. If not, and you have a software firewall, turn off the
software firewall while keeping the NAT router set at its min setting,
and see if it works.
It seems either or both firewalls might be doing the blocking but
most often so far in my tests and contacts, it seems to be the NAT
routers or router firewall. I have Norton NIS 2009 and it has no
problems with the ftp. But my NAT router did.
Since the min security setting worked, the next task is to go back to
my original setting (intermediate) and add a port-forward for ftp. Only
problem is, I don't know how to do that<g>! So, until I get that
figured out I'm lowering the settings to do my ftp uploads and then
putting them back when I'm done.
FWIW, my router is a Westell 327W gateway router. If you should have
the same one, all you have to do is set the security to "low", not "off"
to get it to work for ftp. But like I said, that's not a desirable
setting so the right fix will be the higher setting with a
port-forwarding setup.
Fix: Test by setting firewall/s to min or off settings and try ftp.
It'll likely work. Then figure out how to implement a safe way to do it
other than the min or off settings. Easy to say, harder to do<g>.
HTH,
Twayne`
