I tried to reply to a similar message in dated in October but was apparently too old. So, any help is greatly appreciated. I tried to send the following message: On 10/15 you wrote the message I copied below. I too am trying to set up a functional web/ftp server, mainly to access and share files from my home computer. I use Roadrunner, and have installed a free web server program. While using my cable connection, the wen server seems fine. However, to test the connection, I tried it from a dial-up connection, and nothing comes up. I've been searching to get some instruction, to see if I need to modify the port numbers and/or get a DDNS service, but am finding little help. I probably have a simpler setup than you: for the purpose of this discussion, one computer attached to one cable modem with the desired intent to be able to connect to my home IP and upload/download files from my home harddrive. My work browser, though it connects to the internet with some fast (ie T1) connection, seems to have a problem (or block) on FTP, so I'm trying to get the Web Server working. Any assistance would be much appreciated! Bob

If you want to access files/directories on a remote computer you might want to consider using something like PCAnywhere rather than FTP. You can get it pretty cheap on the web. I got it locally (tucson) for $16. And it's fairly easy to set up. You'd just need to forward port 5631 TCP and port 5632 UDP on your home router (and possibly set up DDNS--go to www.no-ip.com to learn more about free DDNS). First you need to find out if you're using a passive or active FTP client. If you're using "active" FTP, and if there's a firewall on your office LAN, the firewall will interfere when the FTP server (your home PC) attempts to initiate a connection with the FTP client (your work PC). Because with active FTP it's the server that's making the connection, not the client. With passive FTP the client makes the connection so there shouldn't be a firewall issue with your office WAN. (Your FTP client must support passive mode.) But you will need to open ports on your FTP server. Go to http://slacksite.com/other/ftp.html for a discussion on this. When you try to figure all this out you'll understand why I suggest PCAnywhere. Less complicated. Also more secure. Passwords are sent in plaintext with standard FTP. You can encrypt them with PCAnywhere (from Public Key to no-hassle but less secure "PCAnywhere" encyption).