Is "EPSV" an IPv6 command?

Hi:

Our computer support folks here tried to explain to me that the reason I
sometimes get the "500 'EPSV': command not understood." message when
FTP-ing is that my client is sending an IPv6 command which the remote
FTP server doesn't understand.

I find this difficult to accept.

I think that "EPSV" really means "go into extended passive mode," correct?

To which the server says it can't comply. What should be used instead
is passive mode, which I can make happen by typing "passive", and which
will cause my client to send "PASV" to the server, right?

Here is a transcript of my first experience with a server that gave the
error message, but *did not* hand indefinitely afterward, but instead
corrected itself and continued a useable session:

crcarle@mango:/home.hda6/crcarle$ ftp -d ftp.mozilla.org
Trying 64.12.168.243...
Connected to ftpmoz.newaol.com.
[edit]
Name (ftp.mozilla.org:crcarle): anonymous
---> USER anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:
---> PASS XXXX
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
---> SYST
215 UNIX Type: L8 Version: SUNOS
Remote system type is UNIX.
---> TYPE I
200 Type set to I.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
---> FEAT
500 'FEAT': command not understood.
features[0] = 0
features[1] = -1
features[2] = -1
features[3] = -1
features[4] = -1
features[5] = -1
---> PWD
257 "/" is current directory.
got remotepwd as `/'
ftp> ls
---> TYPE A
200 Type set to A.
ftp: setsockopt (ignored): Permission denied
---> EPSV
500 'EPSV': command not understood.
disabling epsv4 for this connection
---> PASV
227 Entering Passive Mode (64,12,168,243,252,134)
ftp: setsockopt (ignored): Permission denied
---> PORT 134,252,41,13,129,183
200 PORT command successful.
---> LIST
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 288
drwxr-xr-x 8 root other 4096 Feb 10 15:42 .
drwxr-xr-x 8 root other 4096 Feb 10 15:42 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root other 351 Aug 8 2000 Welcome
drwxr-xr-x 2 root other 4096 Jul 8 2002 bin
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root other 4096 Aug 8 2000 dev
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root other 4096 Aug 8 2000 etc
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root sys 4096 Aug 8 2000 opt
drwxr-xr-x 3 root other 4096 Feb 10 15:42 pub
drwxr-xr-x 5 root other 4096 Jul 8 2002 usr
226 ASCII Transfer complete.
ftp> close
---> QUIT
221 Goodbye.
ftp>

Usually it would just hang after the "500 'EPSV': command not
understood." line, and I'd have to quit.

Thanks for comments.

Good day!


--
____________________________________
Christopher R. Carlen
Principal Laser/Optical Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
(E-Mail Removed)

Chris Carlen <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I think that "EPSV" really means "go into extended passive mode," correct?

Correct, but its a message to the server. When the server gets it, and it
doesn't know about the EPSV command, its going to say 'command not
understood'. Some buggy servers might do something slightly undefined,
which may be where your problem of hanging is coming from.

> To which the server says it can't comply. What should be used instead
> is passive mode, which I can make happen by typing "passive", and which
> will cause my client to send "PASV" to the server, right?

Correct.

--
Cameron Kerr
(E-Mail Removed) : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!

Cameron Kerr wrote:
> Chris Carlen <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>
>>I think that "EPSV" really means "go into extended passive mode," correct?
>
>
> Correct, but its a message to the server. When the server gets it, and it
> doesn't know about the EPSV command, its going to say 'command not
> understood'. Some buggy servers might do something slightly undefined,
> which may be where your problem of hanging is coming from.
>
>
>>To which the server says it can't comply. What should be used instead
>>is passive mode, which I can make happen by typing "passive", and which
>>will cause my client to send "PASV" to the server, right?
>
>
> Correct.


Thanks for the reply!


--
____________________________________
Christopher R. Carlen
Principal Laser/Optical Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
(E-Mail Removed)