NAT... that term is new to me, but I've seen it on VMWare. I'm guessing that it means Network Address Translation. I can see that the Linksys routers can do it. So that basically means that on the internet, only the router will be seen, but it'll look as if it's running an FTP server? And why will this have to be active FTP? If the port is forwarded directly, won't it work just like it used to? And what of port 80, and the other regular-use ports? Surely I'll want several machines using those at the same time... how will that work?
Second point first... if you have several machines running a webserver on port 80, you'll have to choose a different port on your router to map to each. (one can use 80 of course). If you want each machine to be visible on port 80, either get separate IPs for each machine, (more expense/different ISP service), or combine them all into one webserver running virtual domains. Same with all other single port protocols, (SSH, IRC, Telnet, SMTP, etc.). FTP however, is different.
Due to the age of FTP, it was designed with a different philosophy to single port networking approaches.
When you connect to an FTP server, (on port 21 usually.. unless the server has chosen to use a different 'control' port), you speak plain text to it. Once you are ready to recieve a listing of files, you tell the server your IP, and a local port you have opened for it to connect to, (varies from connect to connect, but usually around the 32000+ range). The FTP server then connects to that port on your machine, and sends you data.
This is Active mode FTP.
Passive FTP, works in a similar way, but instead of you telling the server where it can stick it's data, the server will tell you to connect to it and will let you know what port. Again, this is a dynamic port and usually a FTP server will have a specific range that it will use.
So, if your ftp server allows you to specify the range of ports it can use for passive ftp, then you should be able to tell your router to forward that range of ports to your FTP server machine, thereby enabling passive FTP.
This is advantageous for people trying to connect to your server, who are also behind a NAT gateway, (as your server won't be able to connect to their machine for the same reason... thus the need for passive FTP).
Sorry I'm being so annoying... I hate it when I do something with my computer that I don't understand 100%.
Ditto :)
Hope that explains it enough for you.
MAL
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