[TriLUG] /usr/bin/ftp only does passive mode ?? (RH 7.1)

[Reginald Reed]

Jeremy,

You can turn passive mode off by typing "passive" at the ftp prompt.
I just tried it on one of my RH7.1 boxes:

reginald at reginald-pc.cisco.com: ftp
ftp> passive
Passive mode off.
ftp> 

I don't have a way to test though, everything I know of supports
passive or active connections and I have to use passive to get
through Cisco's firewalls.

--Reggie

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-admin at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-admin at trilug.org]On Behalf
Of jeremyp at pobox.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 4:45 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group
Subject: [TriLUG] /usr/bin/ftp only does passive mode ?? (RH 7.1)



Has anyone else noticed that newer RedHat versions of the ftp client only
support passive mode?  This is frustrating because I have some legacy
devices (old Solaris box, and a printer) that run FTP servers, and will
only work with PORT commands.  I was able to use an old version of ftp
from RH6.2 which worked, but it's really annoying that this was disabled,
with no runtime way of re-enabling it.  I mean, they could have provided a
command-line switch, but no -- it's disabled in "all clients" (for my own
good??)

Linux distributions need to get away from doing things like this if they
ever want to become mainstream.  It's frustrating for even an advanced
user like me -- I can't imagine how a beginner would react when confronted
with something like an "upgraded" operating system that no longer connects
to some of their FTP sites!  And there's not even a way to fix it without
jumping through many hoops.  I understand the reasons for things like
locking down telnet or ftp servers, but now they're getting anal about the
*clients* ?

Also, why do vendors like RedHat never update the date in the man pages
when they make changes?  The man page for ftp(1) says "August 15, 1999" in
both RH 6.2 and 7.1, but there are substantial differences!

Regards,
Jeremy

_______________________________________________
TriLUG mailing list
http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug