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I am running IIS 8.5 on Windows 2012 R2.

I created an FTP site to use port 8021 and when trying to connect using FileZilla (plain FTP), I get the error message "Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity. Failed to retrieve directory listing". I am using Active mode in FileZilla, but in FileZilla connection window it shows that it automatically switches to Passive mode. Any idea why? Do I have to configure anything in IIS to not use Passive mode?

14:19:39    Status: Connecting to ip:8021...
14:19:40    Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
14:19:41    Status: Logged in
14:19:41    Status: Retrieving directory listing...
14:20:02    Command:    PWD
14:20:02    Response:   257 "/" is current directory.
14:20:02    Command:    TYPE I
14:20:02    Response:   200 Type set to I.
14:20:02    Command:    PORT 10,0,1,16,5,64
14:20:02    Response:   501 Server cannot accept argument.
14:20:02    Command:    PASV
14:20:02    Response:   227 Entering Passive Mode (ip,250,68).
14:20:02    Command:    LIST
14:20:02    Response:   150 Opening BINARY mode data connection.
14:20:02    Error:  Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity
14:20:02    Error:  Failed to retrieve directory listing

Thanks in advance.

Update: Tried Passive mode and still no luck,

09:27:20    Status: Connecting to ip:8021...
09:27:21    Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
09:27:22    Status: Logged in
09:27:22    Status: Retrieving directory listing...
09:27:42    Command:    PWD
09:27:42    Response:   257 "/" is current directory.
09:27:42    Command:    TYPE I
09:27:42    Response:   200 Type set to I.
09:27:42    Command:    PASV
09:27:42    Response:   227 Entering Passive Mode (ip,193,17).
09:27:42    Command:    LIST
09:27:42    Response:   150 Opening BINARY mode data connection.
09:27:42    Error:  Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity
09:27:42    Error:  Failed to retrieve directory listing

Update: Solved! https://www.iis.net/learn/publish/using-the-ftp-service/configuring-ftp-firewall-settings-in-iis-7

Added port range to IIS FTP Firewall Support for server node and opened port range in external firewall to allow Passive Mode. Thanks Martin for pointing out

Asela
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1 Answers1

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Your FTP client (FileZilla) sends a local network IP address in the PORT command. A remote FTP server cannot connect a local address in a different network.

You have to configure your client to report an external IP address. In FileZilla, go to Edit > Settings > Connection > FTP > Active mode > Active mode IP.

And you will have to configure your local firewall and/or NAT to allow/route the incoming connections. Actually it hardly makes sense. No one uses Active FTP mode these days, exactly for this reason.

Martin Prikryl
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  • Thanks Martin, but I get this issue only with this server, all other active mode connections to other servers work without any configurations. – Asela Apr 04 '17 at 03:55
  • Are those also sessions outside your network? + Show us logs for those sessions. – Martin Prikryl Apr 04 '17 at 05:44
  • This server has an external firewall. I configured IIS FTP Firewall Support to allow Passive Mode and opened those ports in firewall and now it works. Thanks very much for your comments. I was at a loss :) – Asela Apr 04 '17 at 06:45