Windows 10 FTP server connection failure

Question

I've set up a Windows 10 file server on a desktop wired to my local network and it's accessible over my local network, but I can only connect to it over internet with one computer, a laptop over wireless, and only when connected to my LAN at home. If I take it across town to my office, I get error message:

An error occurred opening that folder on the FTP server. Make sure you have permsission to access that folder.
Details:
200 type set to A.
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,0,xx,xxx,xxx)

I've turned off the firewalls and deactivated anti-virus protection on all 5 of my machines (all Win 10) for testing purposes. I've tried using CuteFTP, Filezilla, WinSCP and Windows explorer over wired and wireless devices.

The FTP clients generate a generic error message that basically says a connection could not be established and/or time out.

I'm stuck on this one laptop connecting easily at home. What does it have that the others don't? What does my home network have that my office doesn't?

Any help is appreciated.

Rip

Answer 1

On the machine where you have the FTP server running, browse https://canyouseeme.org/

In the "Port to check" field type in 21 and click on "Check Port". Is it able to connect? Does it show your IP address to be "xx.59.xxx.xxx"? If it's able to connect, then that is the IP address that you need to use when connecting over the internet.

On my home network, my router assigns IP addresses in the 192.168.1.nnn range. It also manages DNS so that name resolution works. Some routers don't do that, or some users choose to use Google DNS (8.8.8.8) so they may need to verify that Windows Network Discovery is working.

If your client machines can resolve the server name, then you can use network shares as you pointed out, \XXXXX-FS\Sharename.

If name resolution doesn't work but you know that you are on your private network, then you can use the local IP address. That would be your equivalent of my 192.168.1.nnn. Run ipconfig.exe from a command prompt on the server to get it's IP address.

When you connect over the internet via FTP, you need to use passive mode due to the way that FTP initiates the connections.

https://slacksite.com/other/ftp.html

If you are having connection problems, then open a command prompt and test with ftp.exe. Use commands like "open xx.59.xxx.xxx" to connect. In the FTP server config, you can add a welcome message so that you can verify that you are accessing your server.

You should note that FTP is not a secure protocol, so be aware of that when transferring data over the internet. In general, I would recommend installing the OpenSSH feature of Windows and use encrypted SFTP for internet transfers.

Hope that helps you.

Answer 2

What does my home network have that my office doesn't?

On your home network, all machines would typically be on the same network subnet and there is no firewall or router blocking access. If you use a WIFI router to connect to the internet, then machines on the internet see the IP address of the router instead of your PC. Browse https://canyouseeme.org/ and that will tell you what the IP address is that internet based machines see.

Normally, you would need to enable port forwarding on your router to route port 21 to the local IP address of your "server".

But that all depends on your network configuration which forum users would know nothing about.

but I can only connect to it over internet with one computer, a laptop over wireless, and only when connected to my LAN at home.

If you are connected to your LAN at home, then you are not connected over the internet.

Answer 3

Thank you for the response.

It seems the server is configured correctly or the laptop wouldn't be able to connect to it. Using the laptop, I can connect in a windows explorer address bar with simply "\XXXXX-FS\" or, "ftp://xx.59.xxx.xxx". Isn't the former via LAN and the latter over the internet? If not, I'm very lost.

I have a wireless router from xFinity and have forwarded ports 20 and 21 on the xFinity website, as they disabled setting this in the gateway admin tool.

What details about my network configuration would forum users need to know in order to help me figure this out?

Rip

Answer 4

Hi,

Thanks for taking time, it is helpful.

canyouseeme.org shows port 21 is open and the ip is "xx.59.xxx.xxx" but I can only connect to it from the laptop and only while connected to my private home network. All of my other machines can connect over my private network using \XXXXX-FS\Sharename, but they won't connect via the internet over port 21, the attempt just times out.

I've never used ftp.exe before, but I can connect using the the servers ip address listed in the servers ipconfig screen (10.0.0.44), but not the ip address listed on the canyouseeme site (xx.59.xxx.xxx).

I do have all my ftp clients set to connect in passive mode, still no joy. I don't know where to configure Windows file explorer to use passive mode.

Thanks again, any further ideas are welcome.

Rip

Answer 5

Hi,

I should point out that as I said in my original post, the firewalls and anti virus are disabled on the sending and receiving machines for testing purposes. That said, I have verified everything you mentioned and it all seems to be in order. The inbound and outbound rules are set and port 21 is forwarded to the server's internal address yet I get the same behavior with the firewalls on or off.

The link you posted from windowscentral.com is the one I used when setting up the server.

The logs are difficult to read. I will have to find a way to open them, maybe in Excel, but I'm not sure I'd be able to interpret them anyway.

I feel like I'm missing something pretty simple on the surface. Can it be a setting of some kind on the connecting machines that needs to be tweaked? I'm befuddled that the one laptop connects and the others don't. The server itself won't even connect.

Any other idea's you may have are appreciated.

Thanks again,

Rip