On 2004.04.12 10:09, bjsamuels@beenthere-donethat.org.uk wrote:
Until recently (a few days ago) I have been happily uploading via FTP to my hosted web site. Suddenly I find I can start an upload but every attempt ends with 'waiting for transfer to complete' which it never does.
This sounds like a firewall problem as you suspect.
The FTP protocol in its normal mode of operation is special because when you're the client you originate a TCP connection (the control connection) to the server but whenever you transfer data the client end starts listening for an incoming TCP connection (the data connection), tells the server where it is listening via a PORT command and waits for the server to make the connection.
To support FTP working like this a firewall needs a special module which notices the FTP control connection, spies on it to spot PORT commands and opens up the specified incoming port.
Another possibility is to use FTP in passive mode, i.e. where the client tells the server that it wants the data connections to go the other way and that the server must passivelt wait for the client to make the data connection before sending. For a command line FTP you can probably enable this with 'passive'.
HTH, Steve.