Topic: proftp server configuration behind NAT Firewall

[Stephen Redican]

I have my e-smith running behind a firewall/gateway. I have been having difficulty getting ftp operational from behind my firewall to the outside world. I need  a little help configuring the proftpd.conf file through the custom templates in esmith.  I need to add the lines "MasqueradeAddress hostname" (external IP address of my firewall) and "PassivePorts 2121 2121" (passive port range of ftp server).  I have attempted to make these changes but e-smith gives me errors after makeing the changes to the templates and updateing the files using "/sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/proftpd.conf" and restarting the service "service proftpd restart". These last two commands are either exact or very close to what I used.  These changes are outlined at http://proftpd.linux.co.uk/localsite/Userguide/linked/x877.html.

Thanks,

[Bill Talcott]

Do the changes work when you edit /etc/proftpd.conf directly? This will tell you whether it's the lines in the file or the custom template stuff that's causing the problem.

You do understand how the template fragments work, right? Just figure out where in the file you want the new lines, find out which fragments in /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/proftpd.conf/ contain the lines near where you want your addition, and stick your new/modified fragments (with the proper name to reach the desired location in the file) into /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/proftpd.conf/.

And a problem I ran into once: You're not creating the new fragments on a Windows system are you? The text files are formatted differently, and Linux won't be able to read the file as intended...

[Stephen Redican]

I figured out why MasqueradeAddress doesn't work. The command "MasqueradeAddress" is only compatible with 1.2.2 version and later of proftpd while SME Server 5.5 only uses 1.2.0rc3.