# Zone Alarm and running a temporary FTP **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zone-alarm-and-running-a-temporary-ftp/194778 "2003-08-13T00:34:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrianS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c6cbf5/32.png) [@BrianS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrianS)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zone-alarm-and-running-a-temporary-ftp/194778/1 "2003-08-13T00:34:13Z")
I’m running Windows XP with the free version of the Zone Alarm firewall program. I want to run a generic FTP for short periods of time (say a few hours), and I have a dynamic IP cable broadband account. I have never been able to set the FTP program up so that remote users can access it, even after disabling Zone Alarm. Anyone want to offer some help? ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zone-alarm-and-running-a-temporary-ftp/194778/2 "2003-08-13T00:42:40Z")
Can the remote users ping you? Go to your command prompt ( start | run | command ) and enter ipconfig. Give the IP address shown to the person trying to connect to you, and have them try to ping it. If they can ping, you don’t have a connectivity problem. If they can’t ping, have them do a tracert -d to your IP address, to try to figure out where the chain stops. ---
**Author:** ![BrianS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c6cbf5/32.png) [@BrianS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrianS)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zone-alarm-and-running-a-temporary-ftp/194778/3 "2003-08-13T00:46:47Z")
Not sure, not connected right now. This was a “why didn’t I think to ask this six months ago when I actually needed it” question. All I can tell you is that the remote user(s) tried accessing the server with both and FTP program and Internet Explorer, using the IP address taken from IPCONFIG and their username/password, neither would connect. It was like the server didn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zone-alarm-and-running-a-temporary-ftp/194778/4 "2003-08-13T00:47:22Z")
Does your ISP block the FTP port? Most do. (Grumble, mumble, bad thoughts.\*) They will block the standard port 21, and will block others if they catch you running a server. Ditto if you run an http (web) server. You have to dynamically and frequently change the FTP port, but that makes it a real problem for the users to know how to connect. Me, I’d run an FSP server, but only about 20 people on the planet know about that. Sigh. \*It’s terrible that most people don’t know how to secure their systems against worms so that us experts can’t do what we consider “normal” things. I was running a web server in 1994… ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zone-alarm-and-running-a-temporary-ftp/194778/5 "2003-08-13T00:49:50Z")
You have to use passive mode ftp to go through ZoneAlarm. If you’ve actually turned off ZoneAlarm, this may not be the issue. I run an FTP server on my home machine behind ZoneAlarm, and it works just fine as long as the client specifies PASV. This will be a problem from the standard command line client on UNIX, which doesn’t support passive ftp. Active vs. Passive FTP: [http://slacksite.com/other/ftp.html](http://slacksite.com/other/ftp.html)