FTP very ODD problem (imho)

[Jivedue]

Okay, so I did that "Perfect Ubuntu (DD) 6.06" setupd, installed proftpd, and installed ispconfig.

At first everything was working fine. I could always and can always login as root via ftp and it works fine. I used ispconfig to create an "administrator" user about a week ago. Initially everything was working fine w/ the ftp.

But it seems that it's gotten worse and worse. I'm using FileZilla and 1/10 times it will actually connect. When it does, fine, but then I try and change directories and it timesout.

The proftpd.log says stuff like:
13:59:35 FTP no transfer timeout, disconnected
13:59:35 FTP session closed.
13:59:35 FTP session opened.
13:59:35 USER jferland: login successful.
20:00:34 FTP session closed.
14:00:35 FTP session opened.
14:00:35 USER jferland timeout, disconnected
14:05:35 FTP session closed.
20:05:35 FTP session opened.

Any help and resolution to the problem would be greatly appreciated, b/c I can't upload anything and it's getting super annoying.

[Jivedue]

I just wanted to add that I can still upload files with the Web-FTP in ispconfig and that about the only thing I can think of that I've done since it was working great is install some image libraries and some perl modules (Imager, Image::Magick, GD) and install mplayer

[falko]

Did you try both active and passive transfers in your FTP client? To mee it sounds like a firewall problem.

[Jivedue]

Well, here's an excerpt from my proftpd.log regarding passive mode

Sep 18 01:40:12 1front proftpd[10559] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10578] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session opened.
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10578] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): no such user 'anonymous'
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10578] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): USER anonymous: no such user found from 192.168.1.1 [192.168.1.1] to 192.168.1.254:21
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10578] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10579] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session opened.
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10579] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): no such user 'anonymous'
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10579] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): USER anonymous: no such user found from 192.168.1.1 [192.168.1.1] to 192.168.1.254:21
Sep 17 19:41:26 1front proftpd[10579] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.
Sep 17 19:41:31 1front proftpd[10580] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session opened.
Sep 17 19:41:31 1front proftpd[10580] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): USER jferland: Login successful.
Sep 17 19:41:31 1front proftpd[10581] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session opened.
Sep 17 19:41:31 1front proftpd[10581] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): USER jferland: Login successful.
Sep 17 19:41:32 1front proftpd[10581] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): SECURITY VIOLATION: Passive connection from 192.168.1.102 rejected.
Sep 18 01:41:44 1front proftpd[10580] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.
Sep 18 01:41:45 1front proftpd[10522] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.
Sep 18 01:43:08 1front proftpd[10523] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP no transfer timeout, disconnected
Sep 18 01:43:08 1front proftpd[10523] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.
Sep 18 01:46:31 1front proftpd[10581] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP no transfer timeout, disconnected
Sep 18 01:46:31 1front proftpd[10581] www.1front.com (192.168.1.1[192.168.1.1]): FTP session closed.

[Jivedue]

This is just bizarre to me, especially since I know so little.

Proftpd started working fine again, then stopped.

So I turned off proftpd and installed vsftpd and ran it. I could connect and upload files with vsftpd! yay!

So vsftpd let me connect and upload once. Then I tried to connect again, wouldn't do it.

Whatever is messing up would appear to be independent of the FTP server used, and seems to be a bigger problem. But I don't get it because I COULD connect at one point, and can (and transfer files) just .. rarely..

I have PC I'm using to try and connect to my (web)server that are both connected to the same router, which is connected to the internet/ cable modem.

[falko]

Originally Posted by Jivedue

Well, here's an excerpt from my proftpd.log regarding passive mode

Did you also try active mode?

[adam]

if you have a firewall also open port 20 and turn off passive mode.

[Jivedue]

Okay, so I told FileZilla (my FTP client) to only use ports 49152 to 65534. Everything else default. I put "AllowForeignAddress on" and the PassivePorts to the same range. I port forwarded these ports on my router to my server.. (192.168.1.254)

It seems to work, I'm just careful to connect/disconnect as rarely as possible, and it seems to be alright.

When I have a chunk of time I'll see if this actually did anything beneficial or if it's only better because I'm connecting less frequently over all. But I don't really want to connect/ disconnect a lot and see if it messes up unless I'm not going to be around for a few days.

So in conclusion, I have no idea if I fixed it or not, and I don't want to find out, b/c it works now.. but if I have a chunk of time I can afford to possibly lose by checking, I'll let you guys know.