FTP Transfers Seem to Hang

FTP Transfers Seem to Hang

FTP transfers that die suddenly are due, apparently, to some form of
overrunning buffer. It occurs both with Linux and Microsoft servers.
On Linux systems, The problem seems to occur most commonly with the
distribution's server software.

If you receive ftp: connection refused errors, then the problem is
likely due to a lack of authentication. Refer to "FTP or Telnet Server
Won't Allow Logins.."

One remedy is to be replacing the distribution FTP server with the
Linux port of the OpenBSD FTP server. The home page is:
http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/madore/programs/

To install the BSD server, follow the installation instructions, and
refer to the manual pages for inetd and inetd.conf. (If you have the
newer xinetd, see below.) Be sure to tell inetd to run the BSD daemon
alone, not as a subprocess of, for example, tcpd. Comment out the line
that begins "ftp" in the /etc/inetd.conf file and replace it with a
line similar to (if you install the new ftpd in /usr/local/sbin/):

# Original entry, commented out.
#ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.ftpd

# Replacement entry:
ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/sbin/ftpd -l

The replacement daemon will become effective after rebooting or
sending (as root) a SIGHUP to inetd, e.g.:

# kill -HUP inetd

To configure xinetd, create an entry in /etc/xinetd.d per the
instructions in the xinetd.conf manual page. Make sure, again, that
the command-line arguments for ftpd are correct, and that you have
installed the /etc/ftpusers and /etc/pam.d/ftp files. Then restart
xinetd with the command: /etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart. The command
should report "OK," and the restart will be noted in the system
message log.


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