Problems connecting with all FTP clients

Upon further reading, I've switched between active and passive mode for FTP trasfers. Doesn't seem to help either.

I don't think that this is a firewall issue as I am able to sometimes connect to certain FTP sites - even ones hosted on the same webserver under another domain.

For troubleshooting purposes, here's a transcript of the log from Transmit.

*Other Troubleshooting Items I've Tried:*
~ Turning on System firewall, enabling FTP Access (Sharing Control Panel)
~ Under Services tab of Sharing Control Panel ensuring that FTP Access is enabled.
~ Under Network control panel --> Proxies, ensuring that FTP Proxy is checked.


*Transmit 3.6.7 Session Transcript*
LibNcFTP 3.2.1 (August 13, 2007) compiled for UNIX
Uname: Darwin|philip-downers-imac-g5.local|8.11.0|Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC|Power Macintosh
220: --------- Welcome to Pure-FTPd [TLS] ----------
You are user number 5 of 50 allowed.
Local time is now 16:56. Server port: 21.
You will be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Connected to ftp.manifestbozeman.com.
Cmd: USER manifest
331: User manifest OK. Password required
Cmd: PASS xxxxxxxx
230: User manifest has group access to: manifest
OK. Current restricted directory is /
Cmd: TYPE A
200: TYPE is now ASCII
Logged in to ftp.manifestbozeman.com as manifest.
Cmd: SYST
215: UNIX Type: L8
Cmd: PWD
257: "/" is your current location
Cmd: PASV
227: Entering Passive Mode (69,93,144,2,101,12)
Cmd: LIST
150: Accepted data connection
226: Options: -a -l
37 matches total
drwx--x--x 20 manifest manifest 4096 Dec 7 16:53 .
drwx--x--x 20 manifest manifest 4096 Dec 7 16:53 ..
-rw------- 1 manifest manifest 957 Mar 20 2006 .accesshash
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 304 Feb 9 2006 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 191 Feb 9 2006 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 124 Feb 9 2006 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 5619 Feb 9 2006 .canna
-rw------- 1 manifest manifest 26 Feb 10 2006 .contactemail
drwxr-xr-x 3 manifest manifest 4096 Aug 24 2006 .cpaddons
drwxr-xr-x 4 manifest manifest 4096 Dec 1 10:09 .cpanel
drwx------ 2 manifest manifest 4096 Aug 14 2007 .cpanel-datastore
-rw------- 1 manifest manifest 3875 Jun 20 2006 .cpanel-ducache
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 383 Feb 9 2006 .emacs
drwxr-xr-x 9 manifest manifest 4096 Feb 6 2008 .fantasticodata
-rw------- 1 manifest manifest 16 Dec 3 05:02 .ftpquota
drwxr-x--- 5 manifest 99 4096 Jan 1 2008 .htpasswds
-rw------- 1 manifest manifest 14 Dec 6 04:24 .lastlogin
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 47 Aug 8 2006 .mailboxlist
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jul 14 2007 .mod phpmigration
drwx------ 2 manifest manifest 4096 Dec 7 16:53 .spamassassin
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 0 Aug 27 2007 .spamassassinenable
-rw------- 1 manifest manifest 24 Dec 7 05:32 .spamkey
drwx------ 2 manifest manifest 4096 Jul 30 10:47 .sqmaildata
drwxr-xr-x 2 manifest manifest 4096 Feb 9 2006 .ssh
drwx------ 2 manifest manifest 4096 Apr 4 2008 .trash
-rw-r--r-- 1 manifest manifest 658 Feb 9 2006 .zshrc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 manifest manifest 34 Aug 21 2007 access-logs -> /usr/local/apache/domlogs/manifest
drwxr-xr-x 4 manifest manifest 4096 Mar 20 2006 cpanel3-skel
drwxr-xr-x 3 manifest manifest 4096 Aug 14 2007 cpanelbranding
drwxr-xr-x 4 manifest 12 4096 Dec 5 15:29 etc
drwxrwx--- 16 manifest manifest 4096 Dec 1 10:09 mail
drwxr-xr-x 3 0 0 4096 Mar 20 2006 md
drwxrwxrwx 6 manifest manifest 4096 Apr 21 2008 mib_data
drwxr-xr-x 3 manifest manifest 4096 Sep 24 2006 public_ftp
drwxr-x--- 27 manifest 99 4096 Dec 5 11:05 public_html
drwxr-xr-x 8 manifest manifest 4096 Dec 1 10:09 tmp
lrwxrwxrwx 1 0 0 11 Mar 28 2007 www -> public_html
Cmd: CWD /www
250: OK. Current directory is /www
Cmd: CWD /
250: OK. Current directory is /
Cmd: CWD www
250: OK. Current directory is /www
Cmd: PASV
227: Entering Passive Mode (69,93,144,2,136,210)
Cmd: LIST
150: Accepted data connection

Hi BDAqua,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post.

I tried creating a new user account to see what would happen. My connection was made and was able to begin downloading. After about 3MB of transfer, the connection stalled out and would not reconnect. Again, it was failing to bring back the list of files in the directory.

Additionally, YES, I've turned off the software firewall under the Sharing pane of System Preferences. I'm not behind any other firewall that I know of.

This seems to affect all Macs on my Network - G5 tower running 10.4.1, a Powerbook, running 10.4.1 and another Powerbook running 10.5. I brought in a friend's Windows machine and he is able to connect succesfully.

Colleagues outside of my network are able to connect to the FTP servers at the exact same time that I'm unable to. To me, this indicates that it must be some sort of Network setting rather than a machine-specific setting.

If it's helpful, I'm connecting through an Airport Express base station. Restarting the base station has no positive effect.

It may be coincidental, but when I turn off my computer for an extended period of time, then try to connect, on occasion I will be able to begin transfers. This period of connectivity usually lasts less than 15 minutes.

Even when I'm unable to connect to one specific server, I am able to connect to another. Again, connectivity usually lasts less than 15 minutes for that connection as well.

???

Everything was fine until about two weeks ago. The only thing that I can think of is that I installed a program called Little Snitch on a recommendation from a friend. I found the software too restrictive and uninstalled it per the manufacturers suggestion. Today, I did a search using Spotlight and deleted two additional .plist files from Application Support folder. Didn't help. Could that program have modified my system? I was having the problem while the software was installed though.

This has put a major crimp in my ability to work!

Message was edited by: philipdowner

Message was edited by: philipdowner

Hi Aqua,

After my response, I did a bit more research. I removed all remaining traces of the Little Snitch program following the information in this form - link below:

http://forums.obdev.at/viewtopic.php?t=1558

As for your question about the Security Updates, I cannot say definitively. I have Software Update set to check for updates weekly, and I always install security updates. So if I had to guess, I would say yes.

As for the modem, I have tried powering that down for at least 5 minutes. As I stated in my earlier post, it definitely helps, but the problem comes back within 15 minutes or so. All I have for a modem is a simple black box with nothing branded on it. After this post, I'll see if I can get some useful info off of it. The path of network traffic goes... My machine -> Airport Express -> black modem/router -> wireless antenna on rooftop.

As mentioned in the previous post, there is a small black box that connects via ethernet (data-in port) from the Airport Express then has an ethernet cable going from the data-out port to the rooftop wireless antenna. I have to assume that the modem is housed there?

Alpha Network, Inc.
Model: APOE18V-1

Here's a link to the scarce information that I was able to find.
http://dplanet.biz/alfa.com/productinfo.php?productsid=398


To answer your other question, I powered this unit down for approx. 15 minutes. Upon reboot of all hardware, including Airport and Mac, no change in problem.

Hi Aqua,

I tried as you suggested, and downloaded a copy of CyberDuck 3.0. I checked the appropriate preference and tried to connect. No luck.

I think that perhaps a key concept has been overlooked here. I can connect just fine... It's when the FTP client requests the list of files in a directory that I get a timeout. This affects EVERY ftp client that runs on a Mac on my wireless network (Transmit, Fetch and now CyberDuck).

This doesn't affect just one webserver either. It's all of them for the most part. Additionally, I am able to connect fine sometimes. I'm pretty sure that this isn't server related.

Message was edited by: philipdowner

Thanks for all of your help. As I stated in my first post, this fella' seems to have had the same problem. Doesn't look like there was any resolution to it though.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1175591&tstart=2128

Any idea what could be causing this? Could it have been a Security Update from Apple?

I ran the script - no help. Again, the problem is not that the connection is dropped after a period of inactivity. It's that once I connect, the FTP client attempts to display a list of files in the directory and continues doing this until the connection times out.

Here are ping results for ftp.apple.com
Ping has started ...

PING ftp.apple.com (17.254.0.15): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=68.945 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=49.953 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=48.905 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=3 ttl=50 time=48.517 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=4 ttl=50 time=50.596 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=5 ttl=50 time=48.602 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=6 ttl=50 time=50.265 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=7 ttl=50 time=49.122 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=8 ttl=50 time=49.193 ms
64 bytes from 17.254.0.15: icmp_seq=9 ttl=50 time=49.189 ms

--- ftp.apple.com ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 48.517/51.329/68.945/5.909 ms

Hi DB,

Tried connecting to ftp.apple.com and was able to begin a download initially. Then the connection stalled as soon as I attempted to get a new list of files within a directory.

In regards to the problem reoccurring 15 minutes after restart... On restart, often I am able to connect and get the list of files. However, this does not last long. This is not always consistent however. Sometimes I'm unable to connect on restart.

As for the proxies bit, that was when I was first starting to troubleshoot. I was looking through all my Preferences for anything related to FTP.

CURRENTLY, FTP Proxy IS NOT checked, and I am not using proxy servers at all.

Also, I'm pretty sure that this is related to passive/active connections. From what I understand, FTP opens up two ports - one for incoming and one for outgoing connections. It's obvious that my outgoing connection is fine since I'm able to connect to the server. It appears to me that the incoming port is being blocked somehow since it always stalls on file listings. Or perhaps it's the other way around since I am able to download from time to time?

Furthermore, if I specify the directory that I want to initially connect to, it is able to find the directory, but will not show a list of files within it.

YES, I have tried connecting through FTP using 3 other Mac's on the same wireless network. All have the same problem which indicates to me that it's a network problem rather than a machine-specific problem.