3rd-Party FTP Server?

Per Char Jackson:
Pretty obvious, but considering that it took me less than 2 minutes to
install it and get it working here it's probably safe to assume that you
missed something 'obvious'. Apologies if that's not the case.

Naaah... you and I are on the same page: my gut says "Simple, basic,
and/or stupid"....

I was glad to go over to using FileZilla Client instead of IE or Firefox
to test because it eliminated the HTTP syntax - separate boxes for IP,
user, PW, and port...
--
Pete Cresswell

Per VanguardLH:

Too bad the cam software won't save images to files under a folder.
Then you could specify that folder gets synced with online storage
(OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) using their local client. All
you have to do is install their sync client and specify which folders
get synced up to the server.

It can and does.

I had considered a cloud solution but figured there would be a recurring
maintenance issue as the volume built up over time. OTOH, with me as
"The Cloud" I could just concoct a .BAT file and DoubleClick it when
space got tight.

But right now, even though The Cloud is looking more and more like the
logical solution, I would still like to get FileZilla running just
"Because"...
--
Pete Cresswell

Per Stormin' Norman:

Are you running the NVR (Network Video Recorder) software on the same machine as
the FTP server in your test environment? If so, have you tried disabling the
NVR service while testing the FTP server?

Yes and yes - just did that. No change.

Will try turning off Windows Firewall, rebooting, checking to make sure
firewall is off, and they trying to connect again as soon as another
task I am working on is done.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:26:23 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per Stormin' Norman:

Are you running the NVR (Network Video Recorder) software on the same machine as
the FTP server in your test environment? If so, have you tried disabling the
NVR service while testing the FTP server?

Yes and yes - just did that. No change.

Will try turning off Windows Firewall, rebooting, checking to make sure
firewall is off, and they trying to connect again as soon as another
task I am working on is done.

Just a tip, when you disable the Windows Firewall, it's disabled
immediately. There's no reboot required. I would just drop it and test, then
raise it again when you're done testing.

In order, I would start by testing on the PC that's running the server. Once
that works, test from another PC on the LAN. Once that works, you're ready
to set up WAN access.

--

Char Jackson

PeteCresswell wrote:

Per VanguardLH:

Too bad the cam software won't save images to files under a folder.
Then you could specify that folder gets synced with online storage
(OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) using their local client.
All you have to do is install their sync client and specify which
folders get synced up to the server.

It can and does.

I had considered a cloud solution but figured there would be a recurring
maintenance issue as the volume built up over time. OTOH, with me as
"The Cloud" I could just concoct a .BAT file and DoubleClick it when
space got tight.

Expiration of "old" files could be handled by a .bat file. I once had a
batch file that would do a 'dir' on a folder and used a 'for' loop to
parse out the datestamps so I could determine which files were old than
some number of days (specified as a command-line argument so it became a
replaceable parameter within the batch script). I could reuse the .bat
file with command-line args that specified the path (folder) to check
for cleanup, the filespec for what files to check at that path, and the
number of days (which was an algorithm I hunted down online rather than
have to figure out a "how many days between" algorithm by myself).
Alas, I lost those batch files long ago, probably when moving from one
version of Windows to another, didn't need them anymore (see below), so
didn't bother to restore in the install of the new version of Windows.

I came up with another method that didn't require my batch files: use
robocopy. It has parameters you can specify as to the age of a file.
As I recall, the 'move' operation on old files was configured to write a
null file at the destination; i.e., robocopy would move the file but not
its content. robocopy was in a batch file: create the temp folder, run
robocopy to move old files but created empty destination files, and
deleted the temp folder. Move old files elsewhere (creating empty files
made it speedy) and then delete them all by deleting the temp folder.

xxcopy also has time filters so you could probably use it to "move"
files older than some number of days. I don't know if it has the option
to create an empty file as the destination. robocopy's empty move was
very fast because it didn't copy the contents of the old files. A move
that transfered the contents of the files would be slower. As I recall,
I see a DOS/console window blip onto the screen: it showed for a split
second.

Then the batch file (that created the temp folder, ran robocopy to
select old files and copy them but the target files were empty, and
delete the temp folder) was used in as a scheduled event. I'd use Task
Scheduler to clean out a folder of files older than the number of days
specified. This ran every day so the storage folder got old files
rolled out of it.

As I recall, this was when I was storing the logs of some program that
had no expiration on its logs. I had to come up with my own script to
delete the old logs. The logs were hefty in size and I didn't want to
consume all the free space on the hard disk with a lot of logs that
would be useless when they got overly old.

Look at the /minage, /mov, and /purge switches for robocopy. I only
remember using a combo of switches to get robocopy to move the file (and
create a new empty file as the destination) and deleting the temp
folder. You might some articles on using robocopy to effectively delete
old files at:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=robocop...%20old%20files

At first, I had composed a huge .bat file to do the folder management,
list the files, select the ones with datestamps older than specified,
and the huge portion about calculating the days between now and the
datestamp on the file. When I changed to using robocopy, the .bat file
was maybe half a dozen lines, or less. In fact, it might be possible to
have the scheduled event just call robocopy.exe and have it move the old
files and purge them and just ignore leaving around the empty temp
folder.

But right now, even though The Cloud is looking more and more like the
logical solution, I would still like to get FileZilla running just
"Because"...

Well, it might come in as handy expertise later.

Per Stormin' Norman:
1. Try completely disabling the firewall and then restart the machine. After
restart, make sure the FW is still disabled then try accessing the FTP server
again.

Did all that... and it worked.

Turned firewall back on, and it is still working.

No other changes. Nada, zero, zip, zilch, bupkis....

Sheesh!!!!!


Thanks!... it would have been quite a long time before I thought to
perform that obvious (now that somebody has said it...) step.

--
Pete Cresswell

Per Stormin' Norman:
With the firewall reactivated, did you restart the machine and check it one
final time?

No, but here's the joker: I just re-imaged and re-installed FileZilla -
expecting everything to go a-ok and not have any problems like everybody
else seems to not have any problems. (one suspicion being that my
aborted attempt at installing Windows' FTP server was the root cause)

Same problem.... except that taking the firewall down, rebooting, et-al
has not worked....

The Good News: I am going to come out of this knowing stuff I did not
before. eventually.... -)
--
Pete Cresswell

Per Stormin' Norman:
I am not sure I want to know, but I have to ask; why, after getting it working
did you reapply a prior machine image?

Just a perverted compulsion to get it right. Probably the same thing
that, after building my first-and-only boat, made me wish I could build
another one - exactly the same, only "Right"....

It certainly sounds like you have some issues on the machine and that it is time
for you to examine event log errors.

I'll do that.... but I also found something in Server | Edit | Settings
| Passive mode settings that seems to account for the local problem.

I can't recall the exact sequence of changes I made, but right now I
have "Use the following IP:" selected and populated with my DynDNS
domain name and also have "Don't use external IP for local connections"
= True.

And now it works locally (i.e. in "Active" mode).

But remotely, in "Passive" mode, the PASV command seems to be working,
but it's failing on the "MLSD" command.

Now I am trolling the FileZilla forum for suggestions as to what I've
fouled up to make the "MLSD" command fail.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 03 Apr 2015 18:06:49 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per Stormin' Norman:
I am not sure I want to know, but I have to ask; why, after getting it working
did you reapply a prior machine image?

Just a perverted compulsion to get it right. Probably the same thing
that, after building my first-and-only boat, made me wish I could build
another one - exactly the same, only "Right"....

It certainly sounds like you have some issues on the machine and that it is time
for you to examine event log errors.

I'll do that.... but I also found something in Server | Edit | Settings
| Passive mode settings that seems to account for the local problem.

I can't recall the exact sequence of changes I made, but right now I
have "Use the following IP:" selected and populated with my DynDNS
domain name and also have "Don't use external IP for local connections"
= True.

And now it works locally (i.e. in "Active" mode).

What about locally in Passive mode?

But remotely, in "Passive" mode, the PASV command seems to be working,
but it's failing on the "MLSD" command.

And what about remotely in Active mode?

Both modes should work in both scenarios.

--

Char Jackson

Per Char Jackson:
What about locally in Passive mode?

But remotely, in "Passive" mode, the PASV command seems to be working,
but it's failing on the "MLSD" command.

And what about remotely in Active mode?

I don't know enough to force the mode either way.

But now that you have said it, I guess the first thing to do is find out
how to force Active mode remotely.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:43:58 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:

Per Char Jackson:
What about locally in Passive mode?

But remotely, in "Passive" mode, the PASV command seems to be working,
but it's failing on the "MLSD" command.

And what about remotely in Active mode?

I don't know enough to force the mode either way.

But now that you have said it, I guess the first thing to do is find out
how to force Active mode remotely.

I don't know what you're using for a client, but most of them default to
Active and have to be told to do Passive if that's what you want.

If it's a command line client, just type pasventer on a line by itself and
look for the confirmation message. If it has a GUI, the mode is in there
somewhere.

--

Char Jackson