ReadyNAS FTP Troubleshooting

[CGFara]

I am having some issues getting FTP working on my new ReadyNAS NV+ (RAIDiator 4.1.6) and was hoping you guys could help point me in the best direction for troubleshooting. I have spent a couple of solid days troubleshooting and I have already opened up a case with Netgear, but I was hoping one of you guys could help point me in the right direction and save me a few hours on the phone with Tech Support.

My network (all hardwired with fixed IP addresses) consists of the following:
- Linksys WRT610N
- ReadyNAS NV+
- DLink DNS-323
- Laptop

For the last several months I have been using my DNS-323 as my FTP server by forwarding port 21 from the WRT610N to the DNS-323. Last weekend I purchased the ReadyNAS and intend on using it as my new FTP server. I directed port 21 to the ReadyNAS and am able to read/write to the FTP server from my local network. Once I try it from an outside network, I can write files to the ReadyNAS, but when I try to read them I get an extremely slow transfer rate. So slow that I have never sucessfully read a file in excess of 100kbytes/sec. If I redirect port 21 to the DNS-323, FTP works perfectly again. I have researched online, but none of the other suggestions have worked for me.

ReadyNAS FTP Settings
-Port: 21
-Authentication Mode: User
-Upload Resumes: Enabled
-Passive Ports: 3690 - 49999 (I previously had 5000-5020, but opened it up for troubleshooting)
- Masquerade as: {my domain name.com}

Here is what I have tried and some questions:
- I have opened up a DMZ to the ReadyNAS with no success. I believe this tells me that it is not a port forwarding issue. Is this an accurate assumption?
- I have used FileZilla and Windows Explorer as my FTP Clients with the same results.
- I noticed that if I do not also forward the Passive Ports to the ReadyNAS that I cannot browse the FTP directories. The DNS-323 did not require any addition ports to be forwarded besides 21. I'm not sure how to interpret this.
- My MTU on the Linksys is 1492. Per previous suggestions found on the web, I have changed my MTU on the ReadyNAS from 1500 to 1492 (restarting the FTP Server inbetween) with no improvements.
- I have changed my Masquerade As in the ReadyNAS from {mydomainname.com} to my WAN IP Address and have also tried my local IP address (restarting the FTP Server inbetween) with no improvements. I also tried a blank masquerade as with no improvements.
- On the client side I have been using TCPView to see which ports are active and it consistently shows port 21. When I do a read or write, one of the passive ports opens.
- I am trying to view the Linksys traffic by using their LogViewer (sucks) and now am trying KiwiLogger, but am having a hard time figuring out what information I need to look at. Can anyone recommend a good link on how to interpret all of the traffic I am seeing in KiwiLogger?
- I have tried two separate client computers. Both have success to the DNS-323, but neither can read a file from the ReadyNAS. To me this means it is not some local firewall or proxy issue.

I am by no means an FTP expert, but I can't figure out why one FTP server can work flawlessly while another flounders in the same setup. So my big question.... besides Active and Passive mode, are there different flavors or variations of an FTP server that I need to read up on? Can anyone recommend any other troubleshooting tools that may help? Can anyone link me to a quick and dirty guide on interpreting the KiwiLogger traffic from the WRT610N? Anyone recommend an additional troubleshooting thing I should try? Thanks in advance!

 

[thiggins]

Just for yuks, try disconnecting the DNS-323 and set the NV+'s IP to the same as the DNS-323.

What was your FTP read speed from the outside using the DNS-323? Please specify the speed in bits or bytes per second. "100k" isn't specific enough.

 

[CGFara]

Thanks for the quick response. I didn't think of trying that. So I swapped the IP addressed between the DNS-323 and the ReadyNAS and rebooted both machines. I left the port forwarding in the Linksys the same as it was for the DNS-323 (only Port 21 forwarded). It didn't seem to have any effect. Here are the results:
1) As before I was unable to browse the directory structure until I forwarded the passive ports 3690-49999 in addition to the already forwarded port 21.
2) I was able to write a 4megabyte file from the client to the server at a rate of about 800Kbytes/sec
3) I was unable to read a file from the server. The connection was too slow, showing about 300 bytes/second, and kept timing out.
4) Just for additional giggles I forwarded port 20 to the ReadyNAS, but it didn't seem to help at all.

Also, in my previous post it should have read 100Kbytes/sec

 

[thiggins]

Well, that test was to see if there was some filtering in the router that was set for IPs other then the DNS-323.

At this point, seems to be something on the NV+. You could double check this by running an FTP server on your computer, then trying to access it from the Internet.

I assume you've tried rebooting the ReadyNAS and router. And you're not using jumbo frames?

You might try over in the ReadyNAS forums if you haven't already.

 

[CGFara]

I will try to set up one of my computers as an FTP Server later tonight and see how that works.

No, I do not have Jumbo Frames setup (the WRT610N does not support it). Currently the MTU in the ReadyNAS is 1492 and the MTU on the WRT610N is 1492. I have adjusted the ReadyNAS to 1500 (which is what I believe the DNS-323 is set as), but this made no impact.

Yes I have rebooted the ReadyNAS several times. Just to be safe, everytime I make a setting change I stop and restart the ReadyNAS FTP server.

So far this is the only forum I have hit on this subject, but I will try posting again at the ReadyNAS forum to see if anyone there has any advice.

You already helped me greatly by just suggesting that it seems to be something with the NV+. During my initial 2 hours on the phone with the ReadyNAS tech support they seemed to be leaning towards it being related to some problem with my network. It may be a problem with my network, but I don't want them jumping to that conclusion just to close out the case! In addition to turning one of my PCs into an FTP server, can you suggest anything else that could help definitively determine if it is a problem with my network or with the NV+? The tech support guy seemed to think that since I can read/write from my local subnet, but not from a client outside my subnet, that this was a "network problem". I will be on the phone tomorrow with the ReadyNAS tech support and want to be able to rattle off things I have already tried to help speed things along.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[thiggins]

It would be good if you could remove the Internet from the equation and/or try a different router. If you set the WAN port to a static IP (use a different subnet like 192.168.5.XXX) and your laptop to a different IP in the same subnet and connect the laptop directly to the WAN port, you should be able to try out FTP with no Internet connection.

But try the other FTP server first, since it's easier to do.

Did you say you rebooted the router? You might try resetting it to defaults. Also make sure there are no entries in the QoS settings.

 

[CGFara]

So I was able to setup the FileZilla FTP Server on one of my machines and successfully read/write from a client PC on a different network. On the FileZilla FTP server I changed the following from the default to try and mimic my understanding of the ReadyNAS:
1) Changed the Passive Mode to a custom port range of 5000-5020 (which is the same range I initially tried to setup on the ReadyNAS
2) Had it resolve my external ip address to my domain name.
3) Unchecked "Don't use external IP for local connections"

Everything else was left as default. I then pointed my WRT610N to direct only port 21 to the computer running the FileZilla FTP server (not the passive port range). I was able to read/write with no apparent issues.

Please help me understand this one recurring item..... On both the DNS-323 and the FileZilla FTP server, I only need to forward port 21 from the WRT610N to the FTP Server. When I forward port 21 to the ReadyNAS I am unable to even browse the directory list until I also forward the Passive Range ports. I don't know exactly what this means, but I can't help thinking that whatever is causing this is related to the big picture problem.

When I get home later I will try to remove the internet from the issue as suggested above, but so far I have had two completely separate FTP servers solutions work with minimal configuration. In both of those solutions the only thing being changed is where my WRT610N directs Port 21. When I direct it to the ReadyNAS, things don't work. When I direct it to either the FileZilla FTP Server or to the DNS-323, everything works. This seems pretty cut and dry to me now that it has to be some unique configuration setting in the ReadyNAS that I am overlooking.

Thanks for the help on this so far. Once I resolve the issue I will be sure to close the loop here. If you think of any more things to try, keep 'em coming!

 

[claykin]

OP

I found your Readynas forums post. Sure sounds like an odd issue. FTP on my NVX works OK most of the time although I have had the service shut itself off on occasion (I rarely use it anyway). Netgear is looking into the shutoff problem now and should have it fixed in the next firmware release.

Have you set your NV+ to do a file system check and repair on reboot? Do it just in case.

Also, have you tried to download the full logs and take a look in the ftp log? You can send in the full logs along with a link to your post to the jedi's for their review and reply. For an FTP issue I think you ought to address the email to EWOK.

Here's instruction on how to send in the full logs.

http://www.readynas.com/forum/faq.php#How_do_I_send_all_logs?

 

[thiggins]

So I was able to setup the FileZilla FTP Server on one of my machines and successfully read/write from a client PC on a different network.

Sounds like at this point you have solid evidence that the problem is in the NV+. I don't think you need to run the "no Internet" experiment.

Couple of other thoughts:

- Do you have the proper default gateway and DNS server set in the Network Global settings? These should be the IP address of the router that the NV+ is connected to.
- Also make sure that the hostname is not the same as any other machine on your network.
- WINS server disabled
- DHCP server disabled
- Make sure the share you're trying to access has doesn't have any restrictions set (Shares > Share Listing)

 

[CGFara]

- Do you have the proper default gateway and DNS server set in the Network Global settings? These should be the IP address of the router that the NV+ is connected to.

Both the Gateway and DNS Server 1 are pointing to the LAN side IP address of the WRT610N. DNS Server 2 and 3 are pointing to the DNS servers provided by my WAN side DHCP.

- Also make sure that the hostname is not the same as any other machine on your network.

Done. The name is Netgear_NAS, which is unique on my network.

- WINS server disabled
- DHCP server disabled

Both were/are disabled.

- Make sure the share you're trying to access has doesn't have any restrictions set (Shares > Share Listing)

The share has nothing checked or entered in the Share Access Restriction page of the FTP/S page. Also, since I can access this info on the LAN with an FTP client, this would point me into believing the share is setup OK.

I did run the "no Internet" test qucikly last night. It was late, so I was not a slow and methodical as usual, but it looked like I was able to get it to work by doing the following.
1) I unplugged my WAN port on the WRT610N and plugged it into a laptop
2) I set up the WAN port on the WRT610N to a fixed IP address on a different subnet (192.168.10.xxx), while my LAN in on the 192.168.1.xxx subnet.
3) I set the "WAN" Laptop to a fixed IP address on the 192.168.10.xxx subnet
4) I changed the Masquerade As on the ReadyNAS to the WAN fixed IP address.
5) FileZilla FTP client was able to quickly read/write to the ReadyNAS FTP server.
Now this confuses me. One set of tests seem to indicate the internet connection is OK, while this seems to tell me the opposite!!! I plan on rerunning this today to double check my results.

I am going to reset everything to factory defaults, peform the file system check and repair on reboot, disconnect everything but one laptop, ReadyNAS, WRT610N and DSL Router and see if I can just get FTP working to the ReadyNAS. Then it will be my call to tech support. I greatly appreciate all the help/advice so far!

 

[thiggins]

4) I changed the Masquerade As on the ReadyNAS to the WAN fixed IP address.

Whoa! You had this set to your domain name before, right.
This could be confusing DNS or host resolution.

Try just setting it to a name like "nvplus"

 

[CGFara]

OK, I have spent more time than I thought possible on this and have some more results.

First, let me respond to the last feedback.

Whoa! You had this set to your domain name before, right.
This could be confusing DNS or host resolution.

Try just setting it to a name like "nvplus"

When I try to set it to "nvplus" I get an error that "Could not find the masquerade address in DNS. Please check that the value has a DNS entry or enter a numeric IP address". I thought the purpose of the masquerade as was to prevent the NAS from sending its LAN address out on the WAN and confusing the settings. Since I use DynDNS.org to resolve my dynaimc IP address to my domain name, I have been putting in my domain name in the Masquerade As box to update it automatically. I believe the log shows that this is being done correctly, but please let me know if you understanding of Masquerade As is different from mine.

OK, on to my testing results. I played with three different FTP servers on my LAN.
- FileZilla FTP Server
- DLink DNS-323
- ReadyNAS NV+.

I also have two separate remote PCs I was using for this
- Remote Desktop (via Citrix) to a customers server
- Directly through a neighbors wireless access point

I was able to get Active and Passive FTP working to both the FileZilla FTP server and to the DNS-323 at expected rates from both remote PCs. I was only able to get Active mode to work to the ReadyNAS. I would still like to get Passive mode to work to the ReadyNAS so I don't have to, or more importantly so my clients don't have to make changes to their Internet Options to make Active mode work (and may potentially interfere with other things they are doing). Any advice you may have to help me get Passive Mode working to the ReadyNAS would be appreciated.

Thanks again for all the help so far.

 

[thiggins]

Sorry about the red herring on the masquerade. I thought that there might have been some internal DNS duplication that was causing problems.

At this point, your best bet is to hit the ReadyNAS forums and/or tech support.
I'm tapped out of ideas. Let us know if/how you finally get resolution on this.