[Xitami] Dynamic IP... is anyone else using it?

[Francis Turner]

I think what you have is an FTP client problem related to Network 
Address Translation (NAT). It is not a DDNS problem a Xitami problem as 
it will occur with other FTP servers.

Try getting a remote machine to run a very simple client (e.g. the CLI 
ftp client included with windows 9x). It should have no problem, whereas 
the funky GUI client may fail. I have seen this behavious with Netscape 
4.x and believe it also occurs with other clients. The problem is this:

Netscape's FTP client issues a command (SYST I think) to the FTP server 
to tell it what IP address it has and then tries to connect to that IP 
address for future connections. This is stupid because the FTP cleint 
already has an IP address that works. Of course this IP address is 
embedded within the message so the NAT s/w on the router doesn't modify it.

The way to check this is (assuming the simple DOS ftp worked) is to look 
and see if the GUI client does a SYST command or not and what the 
response is.

Francis

Carl J. Elitz wrote:

>The only feature I have not been able to implement with Xitami using the TZO
>client is FTP. I was trying to get the integrated DDNS function in Xitami to
>work only because I thought it might resolve my FTP problem. Perhaps my real
>problem with FTP is that I am also behind a router? Any help you could give
>me with that issue, Stephen, -or anyone else-, would be greatly appreciated.
>
>ROUTER ISSUE:
>
>My machine, like Stephen's machine, is part of a netork, but only a small
>one consisting of my machine and another machine used to play occassional
>two-player games. All unsolicited internet traffic is routed to my main
>machine - as determined by a setting in the router software. Can anyone
>suggest a reason why the Xitami web server works to serve web pages to
>people outside my network, but won't work to serve FTP? The TZO tech support
>people have been nice, but unable to help with this, suggesting that the
>problem may be my Xitami settings. They say that their FTP client keeps
>getting 192.168.1.2 as my machine's IP address (my machine's local IP) when
>they hit my site (when the TZO client is running), instead of the dynamic
>address assigned by my ISP.
>
>I have read everything I can about my router, but have found no obvious
>settings which would tell it to treat FTP traffic in a certain way. The
>router is a 3Com router and is configured via a web page interface, so the
>emphasis of the router software is on keeping things simple. I was concerned
>that the router wasn't designed to do what I'm doing in mind, but the good
>news is that I have found that I can telnet to my router's IP address, and
>that there are many "unimplemented" text commands that can change the
>router's settings, if necessary. I would obviously rather run just Xitami if
>possible, rather than Xitami and the TZO client.
>
>DDNS ISSUE:
>
>The router may be the ultimate solution to my problem, but even so, it does
>not explain why the Xitami DDNS feature is not working with TZO, or explain
>the rather cryptic error messages I am getting from Xitami. I am still
>curious about that. I don't think this feature is well implemented.
>
>DNS SERVER:
>
>Thanks, Stephen, for the suggestion about http://www.jhsoft.com/. I reviewed
>the pages there, but don't think this is an issue for me. As I understand
>it, a DNS server would be something I would be interested in if I had a lot
>of machines on my side of the router, right? My current network setting in
>Windows ME is "DNS disabled."
>
>TESTING MY OWN WEB PAGE/FTP PAGE:
>
>Finally, someone told me that, because I was behind a router, I simply
>cannot visit my own machine through the internet. In other words, although I
>can hit http://192.168.1.2 or "trick" my machine into taking me to my own
>web page by mapping my domain to this IP through the "hosts" file, there is
>no way for me to test my site as people on the other side of the router
>would see it. This has been very frustrating because Xitami works
>beautifully on this side of the router. It's only when I get involved in the
>dynamic IP stuff that things don't work.
>
>I've been playing with this for more than 3 weeks now with almost no luck.
>It's been really frustrating, so I REALLY appreciate any help I get on this.
>The thing that has me most confused is that the Web pages serve, the FTP
>won't. What gives?
>
>Thanks.
>



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  experience is what you get when you don't." Pete Seeger