Setting up an FTP service

[rendermandan]

Hey, I just got a NAS storage drive setup on my network. its a Lacie Network Space 500gb drive. I use it to share pictures and music between my home computer, my wife and son's computer and my laptop.

While I was setting it up, it asks if you would like to enable FTP service on it. But I can't figure out how to access it though ftp. Don't I need some sort of FTP address for it? I tried to enter the ip Address into ftp://........ but all that brought up was the two shared folders on the drive. when i click on them, it appears as if the folders are empty. No folders or files are shown.
Do I need to enable some sort of sharing on the drive?

By the way, the instructions were worthless.

Thanks.

[Luke122]

How are you connecting to the FTP? Using a browser, or a dedicated FTP client?

Maybe try connecting from a command prompt, and setting the transfer mode to Binary.

IE: FTP (ip)
User: username
Password: password

At the next prompt, type bin
This will set the transfer mode to binary. Now do a dir or ls to list the contents. CD commands will change the directory, just like in dos.

[rendermandan]

Thanks. I'm trying to use FileZilla. -we use it at work so I'm familar with it. but for some reason I can't get it to connect. I'm entering the correct IP address, and the user name/passsword, but it won't connect. Would it possible that my router is not letting it work? Maybe a port setting.

Obviously, I'm not exactly a genious when it comes to networking :)

[Luke122]

If you are trying to ftp into the NAS from within the same network, then it's unlikely that the router would be interfering at all. Can you SMB browse the shares on the NAS from the same computer? (ie: \\nas-ip\sharename)

After applying the settings on the NAS, did you have to reboot it to make them take effect? Might be worth rebooting it just to test. :)

[rendermandan]

If you are trying to ftp into the NAS from within the same network, then it's unlikely that the router would be interfering at all. Can you SMB browse the shares on the NAS from the same computer? (ie: \\nas-ip\sharename)

After applying the settings on the NAS, did you have to reboot it to make them take effect? Might be worth rebooting it just to test. :)

I'm trying to connect from work. my NAS is at home. So it might be possible that the router is blocking it.
Not sure what SMB browse is. Sorry for my ignorance. LOL
Yes It did ask to reboot and I did that.

[Luke122]

Ah ok, then if you are trying to get to it from work, set up a port forward on your router for Port 21 to the internal IP of the NAS. That should be all that you need to access it from outside. :)

[Luke122]

I should also stress the importance of secure passwords for the ftp service, otherwise "unwanted" access or exploitation may occur. :)

[rendermandan]

Hey, I talked to a friend tonight, and he said I need to be searching for the IP address of my cable modem. Not the ip of the NAS. he said the router should automatically look for "FTP" on my network and whateever equipment responds, it should connect to it.

So I went to www.whatismyip.com and put that in instead. and All I got was this error.
Connection attempt failed with "ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server".
Error: Could not connect to server


Not sure what this means.

thanks for you help by the way, Luke.

[Luke122]

Yes, sorry I didnt mention that! Since you'll only see the wan IP of the router from work, you would use that as the IP address. Default port for FTP connections is 21, so as long as you have the router port forwarded to the internal IP of the NAS, and the FTP enabled on the NAS, you should be good to go.

If you are getting a connection refused error there is either a problem with the port forward, or the NAS. Does the NAS have an error log you can check to see if the connection attempt actually got that far?

Can you FTP into the NAS from home?
Have you checked the router error log for the connection attempt?
Does your router have a "Virtual Server" option rather than port forwarding? Try that too..
umm.. Disable and re-enable the FTP service on the NAS?

I'll think of more..

[rendermandan]

Ok, thanks. I'll give those a try tonight. I have to check the port forwarding settings.

[Luke122]

In the NAS - FTP (all these acronyms.. lol) does it give the option to choose the port for the FTP? Standard FTP port is 21, but if you choose/chose a different one, we'd need to forward the different port in the router.

If you just chose the standard port, then make sure the port forwarding is for Port 21 to the internal IP of the NAS. :)

[NightrainSrt4]

Wouldn't you need to forward both 20 and 21? I guess some ftp functions would work with just 21. 21 is the control connection while 20 is the data connection. ftp uses 20 for sending files while most other things are handled through 21, like LIST, USER, etc.

I've just been working on writing a pair of C programs that act the same way as ftp, and have used two ports in the same way ftp does.

[rendermandan]

Ok, I checked my router settings and found that port forwarding for FTP was not enabled. So I did so and pointed it toward the IP address for the NAS. Now I can access it and see the directory structure on the NAS. I can also transfer files to the drive. However, I cannot transfer files FROM the drive to my compter. It gives me a "Failed to open file for writing error. It tries it 3 times and then stops.

So now what???

thanks again for your help guys.

[NightrainSrt4]

Have you tried a small file or just large ones? As some FTP apps have issues with large files. I don't really know all the details but I think it has something to do with either active/passive and the querying the client again to make sure its still active and receiving and the client just doesn't know how to respond after the initial connection.

Other than that maybe check the file permissions. Seems weird to be write only, and not read, but I suppose it could happen. Don't know much about the Lacie's setup as I've only dealt with OS's.

[Luke122]

Ok, I checked my router settings and found that port forwarding for FTP was not enabled. So I did so and pointed it toward the IP address for the NAS. Now I can access it and see the directory structure on the NAS. I can also transfer files to the drive. However, I cannot transfer files FROM the drive to my compter. It gives me a "Failed to open file for writing error. It tries it 3 times and then stops.

So now what???

thanks again for your help guys.

So you are able to copy files TO the NAS from work, but you cannot copy files FROM the NAS at work?

If that's the case, i would see if your work firewall is blocking the FTP service. A quick way to check is to hit another FTP site and try to download something.

Are you able to FTP to/from the NAS when you are at home?

[rendermandan]

Sorry, I should have clarified, I was able to copy to it at HOME. But not from it. I will try it at work tomorrow. Haven't been in on the weekend.

As for work firewall. We (the employee's) have their own wireless network at work where we can surf the web and do whatever we please. (as long as its not porn) they don't care what we do. Our work internet is locked down because we do some work for the government. So they monitor everything we do on our workstations. That is why every one of us bring our own personal laptops to work everyday. :)

Like I said, I'll give it a shot tomorrow, but I doubt its going to work.
The NAS software setup does not have any options for setting permissions for write/read access. The only settings it has are name and password, and weather FTP is turned on or not. Thats it!

[rendermandan]

OK guys, got it to work. I was able to connect just fine and tried copying a file over. It gave me the same error. "Cannot open file for editing". But I seemed to remember getting that error one time where the c: drive was write protected. SO I tried to copy the file to my desktop, and guess what. It worked!. not sure why it won't copy to my c: drive. Maybe something to do with windows security or possibly antivirus? But it does work, Yippie!!!

[Luke122]

Vista? It tends to block write access to the root of the hard drive.. so that could be your problem.

Anyways, I'm glad that its working for you!

[rendermandan]

Vista? It tends to block write access to the root of the hard drive.. so that could be your problem.

Anyways, I'm glad that its working for you!

Yep, Vista Ultimate 32 bit.

[si-skyline]

yeah there was your answer to the problem :) silly little thing


il also add as well, to make things easy you can get signed up to noip.com and then you can have a free dns name that points to your home internet what will get updated if your ip changes regularly. its really useful for remembering and also if you give it out to a friend

i use the same service for my server.. simonmcguire.no-ip.info