Fetch Softworks

Endlessly Running Dog (6 posts)

• Started 19 years ago by chip_old
• Latest reply 19 years ago from chip_old

• chip_old Member

  I have two identically configured G4 PowerMacs, one at work & one at home with OS X 10.3.1. I have always been able to use Fetch 4.0.3 to make FTP connections in either direction, BUT once I installed Security Update 2003-12-05 on both I could no longer do so. The transcript window shows that I've logged in, but the running dog runs forever while trying to get the file list.

  Command line FTP in Terminal works fine in both directions between the two Macs, as does the FTP function of BBEdit. FTP from other Windows & UNIX clients to either Mac works fine. Fetch continues to work just fine with other UNIX and Windows FTP servers, but not between my two Macs.

  Have already tried toggling PASSV on and off, but that makes no difference.

  Any ideas?

  Posted 19 years ago #

• chip_old Member

  Oops! Meant to post a typical transcript:

  Connecting to xxx.xxx.net port 21 (12/9/03 5:28:31 PM)
  220 xxx.xxx.net FTP server (lukemftpd 1.1) ready.
  USER xxxx
  331 Password required for xxxx.
  PASS
  230-
  Welcome to Darwin!
  230 User xxxx logged in.
  SYST
  215 UNIX Type: L8 Version: lukemftpd 1.1
  PWD
  257 "/Users/xxxx" is the current directory.
  MACB ENABLE
  500 'MACB ENABLE': command not understood.
  PWD
  257 "/Users/xxxx" is the current directory.
  PWD
  257 "/Users/xxxx" is the current directory.
  PASV
  227 Entering Passive Mode (xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx,254,166)
  LIST

  That's as far as it ever gets.

  Posted 19 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Can you try connecting with command line FTP in Terminal, and type the command "debug" before typing "dir" (to get a file list)? That will generate a transcript of the commands exchanged, which I'd like to compare to the Fetch transcript you posted.

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 19 years ago #

• chip_old Member

  Well this is embarassing! When I do command line FTP in Terminal I use SFTP, not FTP. I'm so used to it I think of it as FTP. Sorry! Command line SFTP works fine. Ordinary command line FTP does not. However this still doesn't explain why BBEdit is still able to FTP. It has an SFTP option, but I don't have it turned on.

  I've discovered that turning off the firewall in the Sharing system preferences solves the problem. Even though "FTP Access" is enabled in the firewall's "Allow" list, FTP doesn't work with the firewall turned on. A port scan shows that although port 21 (ftp) is open, port 20 (ftp-data) is not, nor are 1024 - 65535.

  If I create a new FTP firewall rule listing those ports, everything works fine. Trouble is, ports 1024 - 65535 are wide open all the time, not just when I connect from 20 - 21. Not good.

  Sounds like there's a problem in the current version of Apple' firewall, not in Fetch. But I'm still curious why BBEDit's FTP gets through.

  Posted 19 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  When you don't use passive mode, the FTP server has to make a connection back to your Mac for each file list or file transfer. As you discovered, those connections are blocked by the OS X firewall unless you open all the ports (or just leave the firewall off). That's why we recommend using passive mode transfers. But in that case it's the client that will be making a connection to a random port on the server, so passive mode won't work if the server has a firewall that blocks such connections.

  I don't know why BBEdit is working for you when Fetch doesn't; does BBEdit keep a transcript of commands that you could post?

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 19 years ago #

• chip_old Member

  Thanks Jim. I do have Fetch set to use passive mode, and OS X command line FTP seems to use it by default. Even so, for some reason the built-in OS X 10.3 firewall is blocking both even with FTP Access enabled in the firewall setup.

  I spent some time last night digging around in the Apple Support forums, and there were a number of messages describing similar problems with various FTP clients under 10.3. Unfortunately there isn't enough detail in any of those messages to provide a clear picture of what is happening.

  Unfortunately BBEdit doesn't seem to log FTP sessions, so it is no help in figuring this out.

  Posted 19 years ago #