FTP Problem - Anyone see what's going on here?

DekHog

DekHog

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Derek
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I'll try and keep it short - a firms IT guy done a runner without warning. The owner is a friend of a friend and asked if I could help as their FTP server isn't working. Turns out the PC the FTP was on was ancient, and was barely working due to the number of bad sectors on the HDD - it was also running Windows 2000 Server....

Two NIC's installed in it, so I quickly grabbed the details (one DHCP and one static IP), plus the PC name, etc. It was showing as on a domain, but it died soon after and I never got a chance to look at much else, but I'm guessing that it was the domain, as all their other systems are split into 5 workgroups; no domain anywhere else.

They had a spare system with XP Pro on it they want to use as the FTP server now, but still can't get access from outside to it and it's set up exactly the same as the previous PC with the exception of the domain (put it in a workgroup as there wasn't any other option).

I can't get my head around what is happening with the IP allocations etc on the BT router. The PC is called Tayprint-FTP for the screenshots below from the router, and the original Win2k system was one NIC at DHCP and the other static on 10.0.0.2. The FTP machine is the one with the subnet finishing 248 in the screendumps from the router - the IP should be 81.143.124.100 for the FTP, but can't ping that address?

I'm maybe missing something obvious, but they've been faffing around with the router themselves before I got there so I'm not sure what's been done to anything - nothing like being thrown in at the deep end!! :bang:

I know it's a big ask, but am open to ideas, or just someone to state the bloody obvious to me that I'm missing! :)

EDIT: Don't bother with the last screenshot it's only showing the NIC with the DHCP allocation on the FTP machine....

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If you want to connect from outside to the ftp and the public ip address section is the bit that you have to fill in then the wan ip address of the router ie the one you get from BT should be in that box shouldn't it? It seems to be different....

And from what I remember from NAT you'd need to allocate the ftp box an internal 192 (or a 10. whatever. Forget they are a private range too!) address that was listed as being its ip rather than an external ip too.

Think that is right. It's all a bit fuzzy in my memory...
 
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I've never used this router before myself, so it's all bit strange to me - I just couldn't see where the Public IP address section IP and subnet comes from, or how it relates to what is already there in the way of IP/subnet for the router itself.... :shrug:

There also doesn't seem to be any way of opening/forwarding ports on the router that I can see....
 
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It looks like a right cobble up to be honest! There are multiple names resolving to the same ips and all sorts.

If it is on a BT business line then their business support lot should be able to give you an idea how to get it set up.

If that is the condition their IT guy left it in then he was a berk.
 
No expert, but it looks like the ftp server was set up on a reverse proxy to stop unwanted visitors. Maybe time to re-design the architecture.

Andy
 
Yeah, I found out how to open/forward ports on the router, so was thinking of just doing it that way rather than the arse-for-tit way it appears to have been done....

How do I get their ftp domain name back? I'm assuming that was probably set up on the Win2k server - I'm thinking something like dyndns would probably do it, but it means they'd have to pay for a premium account to use the .com name they've been using for years?
 
what router is that?

trying to figure out why the router ADSL IP is on a completely different IP set to the public address. unless extra static IPs were purchased from the ISP but then how is it passing those through.

id be inclined to bin the router config and start from scratch. you could port forward but obviously if there are DNS records with the ISP going to the public IP they may need updating. long term id recommend a decent dedicated firewall/policy device.
 
Neil.... it's a BT Business Hub... how do I point their original ftp.xxxx.xxxxx.com address to the new IP if I bin the way it's set up now?

I'm totally lost with the IP's as well; just can't see the connection at all.... Win2k box HDD is knacked I think, but could try again tomorrow. Possibly get a logon, but absolutely no chance of cloning it - couldn't even copy a few folders to an external HDD earlier today...

Not too fussed about how it's working, or security (to a point) at the moment, as it's costing them money and they just need it up and running....
 
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Yup, that's the one, I'm sure of it.... just not sure about how to get their ftp domain name to point to that PC though? I may be talking nonsense, but is it possible their W2k server box was set up as a web server with their FTP .com address?

How does their FTP .com address resolve to an IP address for incoming traffic? I can see how something like DynDNS can do it, so I guess it would be something like that, but I don't have a clue what they were using....

Looks like I'm dumping the old router config first thing and just getting it working, even with a new DynDNS domain name for them... better than nothing at all...

Have a look at your own router if you can....

Cheers
 
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their ISP must have a DNS record for the domain pointing to one of the public IP's. trouble is to change that its a 48 hour job.

but as a temporary measure you could ignore the domain and do it by IP basis. its a pain letting people know but at least its usable..
 
basically the way we do it at work is we have an SDSL with a static public IP, our ISP has a DNS record for ftp.domain.com to that IP, FTP traffic comes in through the router and hits our firewall which is set to NAT to the internal address of the FTP server for port 21 packets.

you could reconfigure the router and the NAT rule to do the same or just port forward, but you need to get to the bottom of the differing public IP ranges. a call to the ISP may be on the cards to figure it out.
 
All working now - just backed up then binned the old router config and used dyndns to create a new FTP address for them and added their updater to the FTP machine.... all working like a dream now. :)
 
neil_g said:
their ISP must have a DNS record for the domain pointing to one of the public IP's. trouble is to change that its a 48 hour job.
Click to expand...

48, or 168. Not all caches honour the TTL in the authoritative nameserver zone file.
 
Anyways, was back at it today through remote access.... myself and Mr BT techy support. Customer wanted their original FTP address back, not the DynDNS one..... had to end up changing the router IP to static address, but all sorted now.....
 
Bloody customers...

and don't forget to send the invoice for your time...
 
trencheel303 said:
and don't forget to send the invoice for your time...
Click to expand...

Oh, that's in already for a tidy little sum..... :)

For anyone interested, the 'other' IP in the BT router was part of a block of 8 static IP's that came as part of their business package - the Netgear router isn't able to use more than one public IP address and the one it was using was dynamic, so they just assigned one static to the router and all is well.....
 
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