I connect to Blueyonder broadband by a cable modem.

On my side of the modem I have a firewall/router to my 2 PCs, with local IP
addresses for my 2-off PCs and for 'my side' of the firewall/router.

I need to set up an FTP site, but FTP seems to be be geared towards fixed IP
addresses. However my ISP allocates my IP address dynamically. The ISP
recognises me by MAC address, not IP address.

Question 1: How do I configure an FTP server (in XP Pro) when I don't have a
fixed IP address?
Question 2: How do I route an FTP user onto a specific PC on my home
network?

Any advice or links to useful sites is most welcome. I have searched the web
and can't find an answer.

Regards,
Craig Powers

"craig powers" <cpowers@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:EQTOb.1330$LU2.719@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk...
The easiest thing to do is sign up for Dynamic DNS service, which maps your
dynamic IP address to a constant name. Take a look at www.dyndns.org and
www.tzo.com. You pick a name, for example, like "fubar.dyndns.org", and run
a small client program on your PC or on the router that keeps that name
mapped to your changing IP address. I know that the basic DDNS service is
free at www.dyndns.org. When a user wants to connect your ftp, they enter
the IP address of your server as "fubar.dyndns.org"
I think it's most convenient to run the DDNS client on the router, but you
have to have a router that supports DDNS. I know many of the Netgear and
Linksys ones do. The DDNS client program detects when the IP address that
your ISP has assigned you has changed and updates the DNS entry accordingly


You have to open and forward a range of ports through your router/firewall
to the PC on your LAN which is running your ftp server. The most convenient
way to do this imho is to set up static IPs for the PCs on your LAN. For
example, PC1 on your LAN gets assigned a static IP of 192.168.0.4 (assuming
your
LAN is using the address range 192.168.0.x). Just assign an IP address that
is not already in use by another PC on your LAN.

Next go into your router and open/forward a range of ports to IP address
192.168.0.4. If you want to run your ftp on port 21 (the default port for
ftp)
then you need to open/forward that port. But some ISPs filter our port 21
so that you can't use it. In that case, simply use a different port as your
ftp port. Say port 30000. And, of course, you will have to tell users to
connect using that port instead of 21.

In addition to the ftp port, it's also a good idea to open/forward a range
of ports that
can be used for so callled "passive mode" (PASV) connections. You could,
for example, use ports 30001 to 30015 for PASV. Forward this range of ports
also to IP address 192.168.0.4.


Once you have all the ports open/forwarded, you configure your ftp server
program to use the ports you've chosen. If you haven't already decided on
what program you are going to use for your ftp server, you might want to
take a look at BulletProof FTP Server (www.bpftpserver.com). It's pretty
easy to configure and run. Besides setting the appropriate port numbers, be
sure to specify the Passive mode IP as a dynamic value with name
"fubar.dyndns.org" (put in whatever
name you selected.)


Have fun.

"phoenix" <phoenix@fakeaddress.net> wrote in message
news:qldofys6dzm6.12sw9z6zd71yf.dlg@40tude.net...

Extra info as requested:-
a) I have installed the MS Windows XP Pro 'Internet Information Services'
components which provides an FTP facility. So I'm just using the Windows XP
stuff, not third party software.
b) I have a Netgear Cable/DSL Wireless Router (MR814 v2). I have forwarded
default port 21 to the local IP address of the PC which is acting as the
FTP Server.
c) ICS? Not sure about this. I don't seem to have the various tabs and check
boxes that the help files suggest I should have! However 'Internet
Connection Firewall' is disabled under the LAN Properties, and I have Proxy
Server enabled, if this is any help.

Craig Powers

phoenix wrote:

FYI.. to pass FTP through NAT for port forwarding, you also need to pass port
20 TCP along with port 21 TCP.

PR

[original post is likely clipped to save bandwidth]
On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 16:45:15 -0000, "craig powers"
<cpowers@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

Check out

http://www.allaboutjake.com/network/linksys/ftp.html

FTP is pretty NAT and DDNS unfriendly.

You have to set up your FTP server to advertise your WAN address and offer
a port range that you open in your firewall/router.

It can be done, only one must update the advertised IP address every time
your WAN address changes.

gerry

--

Personal home page - http://gogood.com

gerry misspelled in my email address to confuse robots

You can get an echo remote ip address. I use this and it costs me $6 /
year. You can have something like "craig.myip.org" as your domain
address. You end up running a small app on your pc that updates your
dynamic address to the server and that server sends anyone visiting
your site to your cable ip address. Then all you need to do is choose
which PC should be routed these requests..... on my Linksys it is
called DMZ Host.. you set it to whichever local address you like
(192.168.1.100).

HTH
Chuck


On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 16:45:15 -0000, "craig powers"
<cpowers@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

chuck maier wrote:

If you have a website out there somewhere, and it supports CGI, you
can periodically check in (or at a minimum each time you start your
FTP server or change IP addresses) to a CGI app that can update a
link to your FTP server for others to click on or you could even
have the CGI app use LWP to access your HTTP/FTP sever.

chuck maier wrote:

If you have a website out there somewhere, and it supports CGI, you
can periodically check in (or at a minimum each time you start your
FTP server or change IP addresses) to a CGI app that can update a
link to your FTP server for others to click on or you could even
have the CGI app use LWP to access your HTTP/FTP sever.

chuck maier wrote:
I also use this method. Here are some specifics.

This is a link to the client SW that runs on your server PC. It's works
well and is freeware.
http://www.nord-vision.de/data/index...che=2&seite=58

There are also several companies that provide you with a domain name for
your server with the dynamic IP. http://www.dyndns.org/services/dyndns/
has been doing this for quite a while, and is what I use. Their service
is also free, unless you want to use you own registered domain name, in
which case there is a modest charge.

Jim