Alex is farting around with FTP's again....

[LeperousDust]

Ok, so i'm trying to get me an FTP for ease of use sake up and running again. I've acquired Serv-U (which actually seems perfect for server use apart from i'm still running a 30 day trial). It runs as a service and uses a nice local web front end. Anyway, as far as i can tell i've set up users and pointed them to the folders etc...

I'm only using the SFTP or FTPS connections (yes i'm trying both) but for some reason unless i'm connecting within the network (192.xx.xx.xx) it won't validate my login details.

I've got dyndns set up (alexdoddedinburgh.dyndns.org) and i've tried port 990,21,22 and implicit/explicit secure connections, and SFTP with FireBug. But for some reason its not having any of it. I've definitely forwarded the ports and everything should be working ok, but it isn't, what the fudge should i be looking at next?

[Dr. Z]

FTP and port forwarding is hell on earth - you use port 21 for establishing the connection but it then establishes a connection on a random higher port.

Solution = put your FTP server in your router's DMZ and "hope for the best" or give up and use something like WebDAV to make your files available over HTTP

[Daz]

I think his server's a Windows box - DMZ is probably risky.

I can get a connection on 22 - give me a username password and I'll try an SFTP connection. All that traffic will be over the 1 port.

[LeperousDust]

Ahhh i see, how retarded is that Hmmm i just wanted to be able to let me upload/download files securely and easily. And let other people upload to our server for their and my ease of use.

Correct me if i'm wrong but adding it to the DMZ is like pretty much opening it up to the internet right? I'd probably rather not do that for so many many reason!

Is there no way of controlling what ports FTP's use?

[Dr. Z]

Not in a way thats "good", no.

P.S. SFTP is the slowest thing in the world, ever.

[LeperousDust]

Oooooh wait a second after little bit of fiddling, the SFTP connection seems to be working (albeit if you ignore anything to do with certificates)

checkout alexdoddedinburgh.dyndns.org, port 22 SFTP
Username: BoatDrinks
password: welcomaboard

[LeperousDust]

Yeah i'm aware SFTP is a pretty lame way of transfering things, but it does keep the conection secure the whole time as opposed to just authenticating securely. Useless really since i'm not moving anything top secret

[Daz]

It'll also be fine over a WAN connection. For sure, over LAN there are better ways, but over a WAN, presumably for things that aren't terribly important anyway, its a secure, no fuss way of doing things.

Wont let me in - are the credentials right? I tried spelling welcome correctly and it still didnt take it.

[LeperousDust]

Lol @ i tried spelling welcome correctly Yeah it should be welcomeaboard, hmmmm i'm in the process of fiddling actually, so leave it for now I can see you tried to connect though. I'm getting closer

For the LAN i'm more than happy with just my shared folders, and two forms of remote desktop which do the job for the rare times i need remote access. Although i am thinking about setting up SSH properly on it and then some kind of VNC to run securely too. But right now it's not top of my list. Just being able to dump files with some vague security in mind is all i need like you say

[LeperousDust]

Oh faff this, as usual it was meant to be a quick little thing while i had some time. Instead its driving me up the wall... I'll be back to this but i have more important things to be doing right now (like eating and then going out of course). Bah, if its not one thing