Friday, 24th August 2007Microsoft Windows XP Firewall FTP Problems

FTP Connectivity Problems with the XP Firewall

I was working on a website this evening when BAM - all of a sudden, my I was unable to FTP using Dreamweaver to my server - as its my server and I knew I hadn't changed anything I was baffled. Dreamweaver gave me this unhelpful message:

An FTP error occurred - cannot make connection to host.
Drewmweaver cannot connect to host "ftp.myServer.com". This may be due to one or more of the following reasons:

- The network cable is unplugged or the network is down.
- The FTP server is down. Please verify that the host name is correct in the Site definition dialog box.
- The server uses SFTP and the "Use Secure FTP' checkbox in the site definition dialog box isn't checked.
- The server uses FTP and the "Use Secure FTP' checkbox in the site definition dialog box is checked.
- Accessing the server requires firewall settings that aren't proplerly set.
- It is possible your FTP may be using a non-standard FTP port (21).

I immediately did a test using CuteFTP and recieved this error message:

STATUS:> Getting listing ""...
STATUS:> Connecting to FTP server 123.123.123.123:21 (ip = 123.123.123)...
STATUS:> Socket connected. Waiting for welcome message...
ERROR:> Control connection closed.

The Cause of the Problem

The problem is being caused by the Windows XP Firewall  (this is the firewall on the client PC - not the server). Disable the firewall and you will see you are able to connect with no problems.  At present, I've had no luck resolving this and am having to disable the firewall everytime I want to use FTP (which is pretty much every day - I'm a web developer).  Most of the advice I've found out there is for debugging a new connection - my FTP arrangement on my laptop has been working perfectly for 18 months but today, they both stopped work (but continue to work on all my other machines so its specific to this one).

So far, I've tried the following with no luck: 

Reboot the FTP Server

Reinstalled the FTP Server Software 

Manually Added Port 21 to my Firewall Exceptions.

Manually Added CuteFTP and Dreamweaver to the Exceptions List 

Uninstalled and Resintalled my Network Cards

Reset my Windows XP Firewall configuration to its default.

Danced around in my underwear.

 

Anyone else had this problem? 

 

 

Comment On This Article

Article Comments

  • 10

    Bob, 11:52
    28 September 2008

    Quick Addendum to this, since our hosts reconfigured the firewall to allow PORT as well as PASSIVE ftp connections (by opening port 20 as well as 21), we've been able to untick the Passive option in Dreamweaver and the problem has never occurred again so it seems that it only affects passive connections, probably because they often use a range of non standard ports for the data.

  • 9

    John Watt, 19:03
    20 February 2008

    This has just happened to me (12/2/2008) I have XP Professional with SP1 and was able to publish my web pages to the hosting company no problem. Then inexplicably this all changed and I was unable for 10 days to update my customers web pages. After investigation it appears I have received three security update on the date everything stopped working. (I was getting a socket error) When I removed the SECURITY UPDATES (KB 944533 & 943055 & 946026) I still was unable to upload my web pages. But lo and behold if I drop my firewall everything is now working. Whoops some security update. Now every time I publish a web page I have to remove my nickers!!! Congatulations microsoft!

  • 8

    Just a guy, 10:41
    08 October 2007

    My, it DID work for me when I danced around in my underwear. Strange it doesn't do that for you, are you sure your underwear didn't have holes? Mine didn't - probably why it worked for me?

  • 7

    Poerenstamper, 08:45
    13 September 2007

    Thanks a lot! ;-)

  • 6

    Bob, 08:44
    13 September 2007

    Good luck my friend!

  • 5

    Poerenstamper, 08:42
    13 September 2007

    Well, fortunately for you, you're fine now. ;-)

    It could be that I'm suffering from such a block too, next thing I'm gonna test when I feel like it is another IP address. If it helps I'll let you know!

  • 4

    Bob, 08:38
    13 September 2007

    Strange indeed - thats why I mentioned the firewall factor. If Dreamweaver was sending improper requests to my server, my servers firewall may have decided to block FTP activity for my IP address temporarily, meaning that when I did a test with Cute, that didn't work either but by disabling my LOCAL firewall I gave DW and Cute more FTP options (ie PORT). Its just conjecture because at the moment I have no other logical explanation , am unable to repeat the problem and this was a couple of weeks ago now!

  • 3

    Poerenstamper, 08:32
    13 September 2007

    Yes, of course I tried passive on/off. But your CuteFTP is fixed by that downgrade too? Strange..

  • 2

    Bob, 08:29
    13 September 2007

    Poerenstamper,

    I'm afraid in the end I never found out what was causing XPs firewall to freak out as it. It happened a couple more times. I downgraded from Dreamweaver CS3 back to Dreamweaver 8 and the problems stopped but that could well be a coincidence. I *would* say definately a coincidence because CuteFTP wasn't working either but Dreamweaver could have pi**sed of my servers firewall and had certain ports blocked that XP allows, etc.

    Obviously you tried using passive on / off (port)?

    Bob

  • 1

    Poerenstamper, 08:09
    13 September 2007

    I'm facing exactly the same problem. Some help would be beautiful.