FTP clients stuck at LIST command solution

Jan 9, 2008 Support Tips

I’ve faced this problem for quite sometime and usually ignore it. I’m using FileZilla as the FTP client. Other common clients are WSFTP, CuteFTP and the raw FTP client from Microsoft.

FTP is an important tool for Webmasters and bloggers who owns their own domains. Usually this is the best way to upload files to web servers in the hosting data center. Some applications like Dreamweaver and Frontpage also uses this.

My problem begins when doing FTP, it will do the normal PASV and LIST -a. At the LIST -a command, it will just wait until time out. As per the example below:-

Command: PASV
Response: 227 Entering Passive Mode (210,48,157,101,10,223)
Command: LIST
Error: Disconnected from server
Error: Failed to retrieve directory listing

After doing some research, I found out that it has got something to do with the firewall in Windows XP SP2. What I do to solve it? Here they are.

Access the Firewall Settings

Access the Exceptions page in Windows Firewall. Click Add Port.

Create a first port with Name “FTP (20)” and Port number “20“.

Create a first port with Name “FTP (20)” and Port number “20“.

It will look like the following screen shot.

The end result is the following:-

Response: 227 Entering Passive Mode (10,48,17,101,238,151)
Command: LIST -a
Response: 150 Accepted data connection
Response: 226-ASCII
Response: 226-Options: -a -l
Response: 226 22 matches total
Status: Calculating timezone offset of server…
Command: MDTM .bash_logout
Response: 213 20071126221047
Status: Timezone offsets: Server: 28800 seconds. Local: 28800 seconds. Difference: 0 seconds.
Status: Directory listing successful

Happy FTPying.

Tags: CuteFTP, Filezilla, FTP, LIST, LIST -a, WSFTP, WSFTP LE