Can only ftp one way.

Discuss Programming / Linux questions.

Moderators: scallenger, Sky, TresCom Support Team

Post Reply
User avatar
Dapper Dan
-=TresCom Elder=-
-=TresCom Elder=-
Posts: 2010
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 7:43 am
Location: South Carolina
Contact:

Can only ftp one way.

Post by Dapper Dan »

Hi guys. I got a problem here that I just can't figure out for weeks now. I've googled everyway I can think of, and have tried several fixes, but so far I've come up empty handed.

I have two networks, one at home and one at work. At home and at work, I can ssh from any computer to any other computer on the network. At home, I can ftp from box A to box B, but can't ftp from box B to box A. I have the exact same problem on the work network. I've checked to make sure proftpd is working on all boxes. Port 21 is available on the routers. Turning the firewall on and off makes no difference. on the two boxes that won't ftp to the others, I get: "Connection refused." All computers were installed pretty much the same way with Mandrake 9.0. I need to get this figured out, especially at work so we can easily transfer files back and forth. At home it's not much of a problem because I can use scp both ways. At work however, my staff will require an easy gui interface. There's a really neat ftp file transfer program I found out about called Kbear. You can bring up both computers files in a nice gui, and drag and drop from one to the other.
Any ideas on how I should go about figuring this out? It's probably something really simple that I just haven't learned yet. Thanks for any help. :D
Troodon

Post by Troodon »

Dan, there are two possible explanations: either the ftp service is not enabled in the internet daemon on the "host" machine or the /etc/hosts.allow is misconfigured.

In the first case, use the internet service configuration program to enable ftp. I generally use linuxconf but most people don't like it so it may not be installed by default on your machines. Anyway, there should be a xinetd config tool in the control panel.

In the second case, just manually edit /etc/hosts, /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny on the "host" to allow your "client" machines to connect.

As for the interface, under Gnome you also have gFtp.
User avatar
Dapper Dan
-=TresCom Elder=-
-=TresCom Elder=-
Posts: 2010
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 7:43 am
Location: South Carolina
Contact:

Post by Dapper Dan »

Troodon wrote: either the ftp service is not enabled in the internet daemon...
That was it! Silly me, I thought once proftpd was installed it would automatically run! WRONG! The box has to be told to start it at boot. God I feel like such a Linux idiot sometimes! :oops: Thanks Troodon!! :D
Troodon wrote: As for the interface, under Gnome you also have gFtp.
I often use and like gFtp ( on the one machine that will ftp..) but, for my folks at the station, I have to make everything extremely simple. With Kbear you can set it to bring up the client and server files in a side-by-side icon view. Then they can just drag files from one to the other and close it out. It really is quite neat. Here's the link if you haven't already tried it.

http://kbear.sourceforge.net/

Thanks again Troodon!
Last edited by Dapper Dan on Fri Aug 15, 2003 1:54 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Dapper Dan
-=TresCom Elder=-
-=TresCom Elder=-
Posts: 2010
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 7:43 am
Location: South Carolina
Contact:

Post by Dapper Dan »

double post, sorry..
User avatar
Dapper Dan
-=TresCom Elder=-
-=TresCom Elder=-
Posts: 2010
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 7:43 am
Location: South Carolina
Contact:

Post by Dapper Dan »

Well, KBear LOOKED good anyway...but looks and a cursory inspection can be very misleading though! After my trials with it, I put it into real world practice and boy was KBear disappointing! Especially when I told my accounts manager that it was going to make her job easier! The thing just kept crashing, or it wouldn't transfer files, or it would cue them to be transferred and not transfer them, or a number of other problems.
I dumped KBear and found Krusader!

http://krusader.sourceforge.net/

Now this is an FTP file transfer utility!

It drags and drops and ALWAYS does exactly what you want it to without any arguments! We put it through the ringer at the radio station today and it just kept on working and working! I dragged and dropped a whole folder full of MP3's from one computer to another and it didn't even wince! KBear crashed when I tried to transfer ONE MP3!
It's still too early to tell for sure, but Krusader appears to be as satisfying to use as KBear was disappointing! :D
Post Reply