FTP Server help please?

[The Rookie]

Hellos to the networking guru's!

Please could you help me with an FTP server setup, I'm frustrated, I don't know what seems to be the problem.

So in summary I do the following:
1. Install FTP server program. (home ftp server)
2. Create a user account, give access to directories etc etc
3. Setup NoIP account and create a host, which will point to the WAN IP
4. forward port 21 to my internal IP address.
5. Reserve my internal IP address as static so that it doesn't change, as dhcp is turned on for other clients.
6. Setup DDns in the router so that it updates the host automaticly with the new IP address should the router go down.
7. Connect to the ftp server internally using:
ftp://internal ip address
result:
worsk fine, can login, access directory, download files.
8. connect to the ftp server using:
ftp://HostName
result:
I get the login prompt for username and password but when I press login, it takes me back to the prompt.
If using a ftp client like filezilla, it gives me a 530 error, incorrect username or password.

Notes:
I can ping the hostname successfully using the ping command.
Router: mega100WR router.
Operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit.
DDNS service: NO IP

please could someone tell me what I am doing wrong here?

Have a great day,

Regards,

 

[T-Man]

8. connect to the ftp server using:
ftp://HostName
result:
I get the login prompt for username and password but when I press login, it takes me back to the prompt.

What happens you're trying to go in the 'wrong' way. You're reaching the FTP of the router.

You have to test this from outside the network.
I normally test it via a PPOE connection that I set up on the PC.

I usually add a extra line to \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

192.168.0.10 hostname

where 192.168.0.10 is the (fixed) IP of the ftp server, and hostname is your DDNS host, eg joe-win7.dyndns.org

 

[Tinuva]

Actually, your setup is 90% correct. Apart from reaching the DSL router's ftp server mentioned in the post above mine.

What you are missing is, you need to forward more ports than just port 21.

You also need these additionally: (in your step 4 in opening post)
1. TCP port 20.
2. Passive ports. Most FTP servers assign these dynamically, but you can manually set them in most nowadays, so do like 64000-64200 and forward those TCP ports as well.

Hope that helps.

ps. For clarification, the amount of passive ports you open will dictate how many FTP users the server can handle in passive mode, so you might actually only need like 10 instead of the 201 in my example.

 

[The Rookie]

Hello guys!

Thanks a million! Gosh I can't believe it all works now!

@t-man, thanks for the explanation as to why it didn't work as well as how you go about with your setup!

@Tinuva, thanks for the additional ports that was supposed to be forwarded!

You guys really gave me some valuable info.

Have a great day,

Regards,