The File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol providing functionality for file access, file transfer, and file management.

In addition, FTP operates in either active or a passive mode.

Due to the wrong passive port range configuration settings on the server side, the customer may cause an error like,

"227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,2,118,151).
ftp: connect: Connection timed out"

Today, we’ll see the reason for this error and how it is fixed by our Support Engineers as part of our Server Management Services.

Active and Passive modes?

In passive mode, the server decides which server-side port the client should connect to. Then the client starts the connection to the specified port.

On the other hand, in active mode, the client specifies which client-side port the data channel has opened and the server starts the connection.

Moreover, one of the main reason to occur this “227 entering passive mode FTP connect connection timed out” error is the improper configuration settings of the passive port range.

How we fixed 227 entering passive mode FTP connect connection timed out error

The error is caused due to the misconfiguration of the passive port range on the FTP server and in the firewall settings.

Therefore, our Support Engineers correct the settings in both FTP server and in the firewall.

Set passive port range in FTP server

CPanel offers a choice of two FTP servers. PureFTP and ProFTP. PureFTPd is very much secure.

Here, our Support Engineers took the following steps to add passive range port on Pureftp servers.

In Pureftpd,

To solve the error, the passive Port range should be added to the Pureftp configuration file.

1. We open Pureftp configuration file  /etc/pure-ftpd.conf.

2. Then, we add the following line.

PassivePortRange 30000 35000

3. At last, we restart the Pureftp service.

service pureftpd restart

In ProFTP,

In ProFTP,  we add the passive port range in /etc/proftpd.conf.

1.  We open /etc/proftpd.conf and add this line.

PassivePorts    30000 35000

2. In the end, we restart the service.

service proftpd restart

Add passive port range in firewall settings

Most servers have a firewall to avoid security problems. Therefore, the passive port range should be open in the firewall configuration too.

Even if the FTP server allows passive ports, the firewall can block the connection between FTP client and server when the passive port range is not open. It results in 227 entering passive mode ftp connect connection timed out error.

Our Support Engineers use the following steps to add the passive port range to the firewall configuration file.

For firewall like Iptables,

1. Firstly, we open /etc/sysconfig/iptables file.

2. Then, we add the entry like,

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 49152:65534 -j ACCEPT

3. At last, we restart iptables

service iptables save

For firewall like CSF,

1. We open /etc/csf/csf.conf file.

2. Then, find the line with TCP_IN ,TCP_OUT and then added the port range.

# Allow incoming TCP ports
TCP_IN = "20,21,22,25,53,80,110,30000:35000"

TCP_OUT = "20,21,22,25,53,80,110,30000:35000"

3. Finally, restart the CSF service.

csf -r

service csf restart

[Getting 227 entering passive mode ftp connect connection timed out error? We’ll fix it for you.]

Conclusion

In short, the improper configuration of the passive port range in the FTP server and in the firewall configuration file are the main reasons for “227 entering passive mode ftp connect connection timed out” error. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed this error.