Are you experiencing issues connecting to an FTP server over the internet with FTP.EXE? This is a common problem. In this article, we'll discuss the cause of this issue and how to resolve it.
Issue
FTP is most commonly used protocol to transfer or share files. FTP.EXE is built-in utility that shipped with Windows and commonly used. The FTP.EXE is working perfectly within the server, but it encounters issue connecting to remote FTP while trying to retrieve a directory listing. It hangs until the connection timed-out. In this case the FTP server is trying to connect to the FTP client's IP address and port that was specified by the PORT command. But the connection does not succeed because the server cannot connect to the private IP address of the client.
Solution
There are two solutions for this problem. Switch to a FTP client which supports passive mode FTP. Some of the popular ftp clients are FileZila, WinSCP etc. These are not recommendations, choose a tool that best fits for your need.
Alternatively, you can configure your FTP server to accommodate active mode. This is not a straightforward configuration; you need to update your network and firewall settings to allow the necessary connections and ports. This will be another topic of discussion; I will share few links at the end of this article where you could find the details how active vs passive FTP works and required network and firewall settings.
Conclusion
The built-in utility FTP.EXE cannot connect over internet and timed-out while getting the directory listing as it doesn't support the passive mode. The easiest solution is to switch to a ftp client which support the passive mode. You can follow the below article to know more about how Active vs Passive mode FTP works and it will guide you how to step-up network and firewall for both types of ftp mode.
jaroslad - Windows Firewall setup for Microsoft FTP Publishing Service for IIS 7.0.
Robert McMurray - A Quick Discussion of Active and Passive FTP Connections (iis.net)
Microsoft
