FTP and WPA problem

"Peter Crosland" hath wroth:

What maker and model router are you using? Extra credit for the firmware version.

Weird. Try using the PASV mode for ftp. It should be a setting (somewhere) in SmartFTP[1]. I don't think it will really do anything but it's worth a try.

It would also be interesting if you tried ftp with encryption disabled.

In theory, encryption should not have anything to do with ftp functionality. However, ftp is unique in that the router has to do something odd with ftp in order to impliment NAT. In order to seperate mutliple ftp streams, the router has to sniff the payload in order to extract the port numbers used. Ordinarily, the port numbers are in the header, but not for ftp. It's possible that your unspecified model wireless router is having a problem doing that. Perhaps a firmware update might help.

[1] Beware of any program with smart, amazing, magic, miracle, enhanced or other superlatives in the name. They rarely meet one's expectations.

Thanks for that Jeff. I have tried passive mode and it makes not difference. I am using a Draytek 2800G with the latest UK firmware that has been around for ages and AFAIK is quite stable. I should also have said that the problem is also there if I use the WEP protocol. I have not tried with an open network but will do so but this will not be a solution that I can use for security reasons. One other clue is that I have now tried my Dell Inspiron

6400 fitted with a Gigabyte internal wireless card and works perfectly when running the same software. To me this would suggest that the incompatibility is with the WG511T in some way. Signal sterngth is not a problem as both cards connect happily at 108Mbps.

Peter Crosland

Since you mention connecting at 108Mbs I assume the WG511T is running in "Turbo" mode. There can be problems if you are using a non-Netgear router with the card in this mode, I would suggest you try reducing the speed to 54Mbs and see what happens.

Thanks Kev. I am beginning to suspect you are correct. The strange thing is that it works perfectly at 108 on everything else but FTP. I note that the current model of the card is the WG511U so perhaps this is a clue.

Peter Crosland

WG511U? this:-

Do you use data compression when doing your ftp'ing? I have been trying to find a site where it gave a description of how the "Turbo" system worked, I saw it a couple of years ago and now cannot find it. I seem to remember that it used some form of compression to achieve the data transfer speed and I wonder if you are effectively trying to carry out a double compression of the data and this is causing the problem, I have no doubt someone knows how it works and will probably correct this.

Not knowingly using any compression. In any case surely the transport mechanism should be completely transparent or is this too simplistic? .

Peter Crosland

>

I have just installed all the software on another laptop using an internal

108 card. It all works perfectly! So It seems fairly conclusive that the WG511T card is the culprit.

Peter Crosland