Re: Mac clients having trouble using FTP on SBS

In article <eCo$MnTpFHA.2904@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Julie" <julie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> We have a client with SBS2K who uses its FTP service to receive files
> from clients (using authentication.) Some of these clients have Mac machines
> and they sometimes have trouble hooking up. In virtually every case, having
> the Mac user change their FTP client from active to passive (or vice versa)
> solves the problem. However, there is at least one client for whom neither
> setting
> works.
>
> Would it be worthwhile to add a Mac machine to the network in order to
> give these remote Mac users a native environment?


Hi Julie!

>From your description, I'm really confused as to where the servers are
located and where the client Macs are located.

I'm assuming that the Macs are transferring files over the Internet via
FTP to the SBS server. Correct?

Setting a Mac to use passive mode simply means that it must go through
its company's own proxy server to connect to the Internet before
connecting to your FTP server. Depending on the proxy software used and
how it's configured, changing this setting from one to the other will
correct most problems as you've already seen.

If neither of these settings (passive vs. non-passive) is working for
your customer then something else is wrong. It could be authentication,
a blocked FTP port on the client side (maybe their proxy server blocks
20 and 21), an incorrect setting or something else. Most Mac FTP clients
have transcripts and logs you can check for information about the
errors.

*** Mac OS X can not natively upload FTP files using the Go --> Connect
menu. Stupid, yes, and Apple should have changed this long ago. Your Mac
user must use a third party client such as Anarchie, Fetch or
Transmit.***

FTP is a pretty generic protocol and nothing is specific to Macs that
Windows and UNIX FTP servers don't already do. Getting a Mac to handle
Mac client FTP transfers is probably overkill.

Hope this helps! bill
--
William M. Smith
(Microsoft Interop MVP)
.

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