Getting vsftpd up and running[SOLVED]

Question

hi folks,
        i'm trying to set up ftp via vsftpd so i can connect to my home box from my android phone to download media files and such (no uploading from the phone). vsftpd appears to be up and running but i just cannot seem to connect to it from my android. my setup is this :
arch64 box hardwired to a router, and my android phone which can connect to the router wirelessly or has my phone providers internet service.
i've added vsftpd to my rc.conf, and it starts at boot time no problem. here's a copy of my vsftpd.conf
# Use this to use vsftpd in standalone mode, otherwise it runs through (x)inetd
listen=YES
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
#anonymous_enable=YES
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
#local_umask=022
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
#anon_upload_enable=YES
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
xferlog_enable=YES
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format.
# Note that the default log file location is /var/log/xferlog in this case.
xferlog_std_format=YES
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
# raw file.
# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
ftpd_banner=you're in dipshit!.
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd.banned_emails
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
#chroot_local_user=YES
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and
# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction
# with the listen_ipv6 directive.
listen=YES
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. To listen on IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets, you must run two copies of vsftpd with two configuration files.
# Make sure, that one of the listen options is commented !!
#listen_ipv6=YES
userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.user_list
i think i'm right that vsftpd allows me to connect with users that are already set up on my machine, so i created vsftpd.user_list and justr added my normal login name to that. thats what i'm going to login with. my router i set up to forward ports 20/21 from my arch box's ip (192.168.2.6). it also has a setting for private port range, but i just left that the same as the other range. so thats the router sorterd i think. finally i have the settings for my ftp client, in this case Andftp.
hostname - external ip adress of router
protocol - ftp
port - 21, but have tried 20 too
username - my linux login
password - linux pass
local dir - /sdcard
remote dir - /home/myusername
when i try to connect via my phones internet it just times out, ive always tried these settings with my file browsers ftp client. and when i try to connect over wifi, it just refuses to log in. i'm not sure if can be logged into my box at the same time as trying to log in from my phone with the same username. so i tried while being logged out of my box. still no joy. thats about as much info as i can give, apologies for the length of this post, and thanks for taking the time to read it
Last edited by yabasta (2010-12-08 19:01:59)

Answer 1

ok, after some tinkering (router was blocking) i've managed to be able to connect via my ftp client. now though, the connection times out after entering passivemode.
here's the sequence of messages i keep getting :
220 youre in! (my dir message)
USER me
331 please specify the password
PASS **** (entered and accepted)
230 login successful
PWD
257 "/"
NOOP
200 NOOP OK
CWD /
250 directory successfully changed
SYST
215 UNIX Type : L8
PASV
227 entering passive mode (192,168,2,2,155,168)
LIST
425 failed to establish connection - times out here
seems like i'm getting close, any ideas? here's a revised vsftpd.conf
# Example config file /etc/vsftpd.conf
# Use this to use vsftpd in standalone mode, otherwise it runs through (x)inetd
listen=YES
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=NO
anon_world_readable_only=YES
listen_port=20
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
#local_umask=022
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
#anon_upload_enable=YES
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
# Activate logging of uploads/downloads.
xferlog_enable=YES
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
# You may override where the log file goes if you like. The default is shown
# below.
xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log
# If you want, you can have your log file in standard ftpd xferlog format.
# Note that the default log file location is /var/log/xferlog in this case.
xferlog_std_format=YES
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
# raw file.
# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
ftpd_banner=you're in dipshit!.
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd.banned_emails
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
chroot_local_user=YES
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and
# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction
# with the listen_ipv6 directive.
listen=YES
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. To listen on IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets, you must run two copies of vsftpd with two configuration files.
# Make sure, that one of the listen options is commented !!
#listen_ipv6=YES
userlist_enable=NO
pasv_enable=YES