FTP using a private IP addressing scheme...?

Question

I am at home and I am trying to set up an FTP server to share some files of something I'm working on with some friends of mine to look at. I am using a 192.168 Private IP address and I am not quite sure I can set it up to allow someone on the other side of the router to have access to my FTP server... I also have no access to the router settings so I can't do anything with that... anyone have any suggestions?

if it helps I am using hughes net... yeah I know it's pretty crappy but it's all we can get up here...

any way I can route my ftp through port 80?

Answer 1

If you can not port forward port 21 (which is used for FTP) at the router then no one from the outside will be able to get to you. So find out who does have access to the router and see if you can get that port opened.. otherwise you cant run a server other than locally.

Answer 2

Even if the router has port 21 open you will still have trouble setting up the FTP server. The key feature of routers is to prevent such setups that your trying to do. The feature needed is "port forwarding" on the router. This allows requests from the outside world to hit the router with port 21 or any port really it doesn't have be port 21 but that's just the most common used to pass along to the private IP. This way you can have an FTP server on 192.168.1.100 and then have a backup ftp server on 192.168.1.101 on port 2121. The key to your problem is that once data request from an ftp client hit the router the router is lost and doesn't know what to do with those request. Even though the port could be open and your system could have a ftp server program running nothing is telling it to go to your IP. With the port open this will allow you as a client to connect to someone else but not for them to connect to you. Anyhow best bet get the router setup if you just can't then your going to have a virtually impossible time setting this up. Sorry... As a workaround many ISP companies provide free limited user space such as 10mb -100mb of user space. You could try using this space to send the files. If you need to transport more than what your space holds then a good trick I do is create a zip file that is "spanned" meaning split into multiple smaller files. Then I transfer the one file let them copy and then send the next and the next until complete. obviously very tedious but it does get the job done. GL....

Answer 3

You're going to use something called port forwarding to open the ftp port.

Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to open the port you need unless you get access to the router, or have your systems admin open the port for you. Here's a general plan anyway, just in case you can get router access.

Since I don't know what router you're using, I can't give you terribly specific instructions, but here's a general layout.

1.) Log in to your router's administration panel.

2.) Find the port forwarding area.

3.) Tell the router to accept all incoming and outgoing transmissions on port 21 (the default FTP port) and to forward those transmissions to the private IP (192.160.*.*) of your FTP server.

You'll then be able to use the router's ip address (IE, the address the shows up when you go to www.whatismyip.org) to connect to the ftp server.

Answer 4

You need to know your public IP address in order to allow someone to ftp files to/from you. You can find it by going to mywanip.com.

Your router must be set up to allow ftp connections on the default port 21. If you can't access those settings, it may not work.

Answer 5

w/o being able to add a NAT rule on the front end of the router, you are kinda of screwed in that sense..

however I believe there are services that allow you to upload the file in question to a Publicly available download service...and then downloads for people that you choose etc..

I've downloaded files form people using this service in the past, but the name escapes me..