Win 2003 SP1 and FTP

I upgraded my Win 2003 standard installation with SP1, and all seemed
to be ok. I do have the firewall enabled, and have port 21 open to
allow FTP connections to the IIS server.

Smaller files are uploaded to the server without problems.

Larger files, 10MB or so, freeze up the FTP client (HP-UX ftp command
line). It does appear that this happens after the whole file is
tranferred. The file is ok on the server side, but the command never
completes on the client side.

Needless to say, larger and smaller files used to transfer without
problems before SP1. No changes have been made on the client side.

Any ideas why this behavior may occur? Any ideas are welcome.

/Tomas



Tomas Boman

hey tomas

i'm having exactly the same problem, after installing sp1 a windows
2003 server being used for ftp that was fine before now drops the
connection after uploading large files, when small ones are fine

turning off windows firewall solves the problem (but of course makes
a whole load more)

have you found a cure for this one?

cheers
jim



"Tomas Boman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed) oups.com>...
> I upgraded my Win 2003 standard installation with SP1, and all seemed
> to be ok. I do have the firewall enabled, and have port 21 open to
> allow FTP connections to the IIS server.
>
> Smaller files are uploaded to the server without problems.
>
> Larger files, 10MB or so, freeze up the FTP client (HP-UX ftp command
> line). It does appear that this happens after the whole file is
> tranferred. The file is ok on the server side, but the command never
> completes on the client side.
>
> Needless to say, larger and smaller files used to transfer without
> problems before SP1. No changes have been made on the client side.
>
> Any ideas why this behavior may occur? Any ideas are welcome.
>
> /Tomas

We did a couple of tests with passive/active and such settings, but no
luck. Windows command prompt works ok, but Linux and HP-UX ftp doesn't
work.

In our case, the connection doesn't drop prematurely, it freezes up the
ftp command prompt and hangs there forever until a break is sent (at
which point the file seems to have been transferred ok).

We are just doing random ad-hoc testing to see if something will get it
to work. Have you done some real testing or investigation into it?
Anyone with ideas of what to test?

/Tomas

The reason for using the built-in firewall in SP1, is that I am a cheap
bastard ;-). However, I have no other reasons to stick with it. Does
anyone know of a good free "firewall" I could use?

im having the same problem after sp1 and am NOT using the firewall on the
server OR the client. so i would rule it out. windows command line ftp seems
to work fine, using IE and ftp:// in the address bar either locks up on big
files or i get disconnected.


"Tomas Boman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> The reason for using the built-in firewall in SP1, is that I am a cheap
> bastard ;-). However, I have no other reasons to stick with it. Does
> anyone know of a good free "firewall" I could use?
>

same here. but here not even windows cmd ftp works fine. when uploading
files > 8kb, it stucks.

but here it seems only a part of a much larger problem: in general, all
outgoing tcp services are affected.
- sending out mails and uploading newsgroup-posts take 2-3 attempts
- ping has 5% loss
- vpn connections freezing up

resetting the nic (i.e.: disable/enable) it helps for a few (2-5) minutes,
then the problem arise again.

there is no firewall involved at all, and with other os and/or machines
everything works fine. just w2k3 sp1 won't do its job!

- thomas


<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> im having the same problem after sp1 and am NOT using the firewall on the
> server OR the client. so i would rule it out. windows command line ftp
> seems to work fine, using IE and ftp:// in the address bar either locks up
> on big files or i get disconnected.
>
>
> "Tomas Boman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>> The reason for using the built-in firewall in SP1, is that I am a cheap
>> bastard ;-). However, I have no other reasons to stick with it. Does
>> anyone know of a good free "firewall" I could use?
>>
>
>

hey again

just to say, not sure we are all talking about the same problem
here, but i still havent found a proper cure for this ftp post sp1
with the firewall thing

it definitely is the firewall for me, as if i turn it off everything is

sweet, and i've got around it for the moment by changing how
i have the firewall set up (loosing the proper ftp exception on
the individual adapter and allowing the port in by number on the
general rules that cover all the adapters...now active ftp is
absolutely
fine, but we've lost the ability to use passive ftp at all on the
server (as expected)

if anyone does have any ideas let me know, i've just had to put
this one on hold while i do some other stuff, but i really need to
get it working properly over the next couple of weeks

cheers again
jim


Thomas wrote:
> same here. but here not even windows cmd ftp works fine. when
uploading
> files > 8kb, it stucks.
>
> but here it seems only a part of a much larger problem: in general,
all
> outgoing tcp services are affected.
> - sending out mails and uploading newsgroup-posts take 2-3 attempts
> - ping has 5% loss
> - vpn connections freezing up
>
> resetting the nic (i.e.: disable/enable) it helps for a few (2-5)
minutes,
> then the problem arise again.
>
> there is no firewall involved at all, and with other os and/or
machines
> everything works fine. just w2k3 sp1 won't do its job!
>
> - thomas
>
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > im having the same problem after sp1 and am NOT using the firewall
on the
> > server OR the client. so i would rule it out. windows command line
ftp
> > seems to work fine, using IE and ftp:// in the address bar either
locks up
> > on big files or i get disconnected.
> >
> >
> > "Tomas Boman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> >> The reason for using the built-in firewall in SP1, is that I am a
cheap
> >> bastard ;-). However, I have no other reasons to stick with it.
Does
> >> anyone know of a good free "firewall" I could use?
> >>
> >
> >

pasv is easy to fix:

configure your ftp server to use a defined range of ports (say 60001-60020,
range depends on how active your ftp is) for pasv. then add *each* of those
pasv ports to your firewall exception list.

life would be much easier if ms firewall would actually understand port
ranges... *sigh*

- thomas

ps: my connection problems are still around. i wonder if now would be a good
time to switch OS ;-)


<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> hey again
>
> just to say, not sure we are all talking about the same problem
> here, but i still havent found a proper cure for this ftp post sp1
> with the firewall thing
>
> it definitely is the firewall for me, as if i turn it off everything is
>
> sweet, and i've got around it for the moment by changing how
> i have the firewall set up (loosing the proper ftp exception on
> the individual adapter and allowing the port in by number on the
> general rules that cover all the adapters...now active ftp is
> absolutely
> fine, but we've lost the ability to use passive ftp at all on the
> server (as expected)
>
> if anyone does have any ideas let me know, i've just had to put
> this one on hold while i do some other stuff, but i really need to
> get it working properly over the next couple of weeks
>
> cheers again
> jim
>
>
> Thomas wrote:
>> same here. but here not even windows cmd ftp works fine. when
> uploading
>> files > 8kb, it stucks.
>>
>> but here it seems only a part of a much larger problem: in general,
> all
>> outgoing tcp services are affected.
>> - sending out mails and uploading newsgroup-posts take 2-3 attempts
>> - ping has 5% loss
>> - vpn connections freezing up
>>
>> resetting the nic (i.e.: disable/enable) it helps for a few (2-5)
> minutes,
>> then the problem arise again.
>>
>> there is no firewall involved at all, and with other os and/or
> machines
>> everything works fine. just w2k3 sp1 won't do its job!
>>
>> - thomas
>>
>>
>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > im having the same problem after sp1 and am NOT using the firewall
> on the
>> > server OR the client. so i would rule it out. windows command line
> ftp
>> > seems to work fine, using IE and ftp:// in the address bar either
> locks up
>> > on big files or i get disconnected.
>> >
>> >
>> > "Tomas Boman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> > news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>> >> The reason for using the built-in firewall in SP1, is that I am a
> cheap
>> >> bastard ;-). However, I have no other reasons to stick with it.
> Does
>> >> anyone know of a good free "firewall" I could use?
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>

thomas, you are a star...thats done the trick. all working well now

cheers for that

one other little note, i had another problem with this server when i
initially set it up, moving from windows 2000 to 2003, i was
experiencing
various files getting stuck when ftp'ing, smtp, pop3 all that sort of
stuff, and cured the lot of those by turning off mtu path discovery
which seemed to be on by default for win 2003 server.

probably hasn't any bearing on people problems here, but cured a
whole lot of file transfer issues for me

One of the possible problem with droped network connection after SP1
were described here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898060/
but in our situation hotfix don't solved it