Sonicwall

kavo87

Hey guys,

Currently working as an intern and been giving a job to do on a the dell sonicwall.

Members of staff outside the office are having problems with the FTP.

Its either running really slow or they can't upload large files as the connection runs out.

All this is completely new to me so don't wanna messup and want to make a good impression. So any help would be much appreciated.

Ask your peers. You aren't expected to know everything straight away.

If I recall correctly, you need to increase the timeout on the WAN to LAN firewall rule in order to prevent transfers from timing out after 15 minutes.

testicles

This post has been deleted.

kavo87

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Ask your peers. You aren't expected to know everything straight away.

I found that up pretty quick I don't know as much as I thought

kavo87

Karsini wrote: »

If I recall correctly, you need to increase the timeout on the WAN to LAN firewall rule in order to prevent transfers from timing out after 15 minutes.

I'll have a look at that tomorrow thanks.

kavo87

testicles wrote: »

You don't mention what model SonicWall you have, but on an NSA 5600 the connection timeout is under Firewall Settings -> Flood Protection -> Default TCP Connection Timeout (minutes)

I'm on the way home now and can't remember the model to save my life. I'll look check the timeout tomorrow. As far as I know up to now large files were no problem when uploading.

ishotjr2

Was it the timeout? (as that would not explain it running slowly).

Off topic but: FTP is pain in the backside of a protocol all that active/passive stuff and each server seems to have implemented it their own way. No need for it anymore IMO http/webdav/sftp/sfp all more secure and reliable.

davo2001

ishotjr2 wrote: »

Was it the timeout? (as that would not explain it running slowly).

Off topic but: FTP is pain in the backside of a protocol all that active/passive stuff and each server seems to have implemented it their own way. No need for it anymore IMO http/webdav/sftp/sfp all more secure and reliable.

Yeah but upgrades cost money and people don't like to do stuff any differently from how they have been doing it for years, security be dammed!

PeterTheEighth

Use of FTP for secure information would be sort of frowned on. FTP is sent in clear text, so hackers would grab the username and password (and possibly use for targetting other applications you have running). It also means that any file that you pass could be grabbed fairly easily as it is not encrypted.

However, if that is what you have to use and you just have to get it working. I would start with two things.

1) install wireshark on one of the FTP clients and capture the traffic when they are sending/receiving and see how it looks from the client. What errors (if any) does it see in the capture, are there any pointers to why it is slow. The information you are looking for will definitely be in the packets, so capturing either from the client side or the server side should at least help you find the source of the problem.

2) Check the logs on any devices between the client and server that you have access to. There may be some security reasons or Quality Of Service reason why the access is slow.

Might also be useful to try to set up the same server FTP software on a test box (outside of your work network) and see if the clients experience the same problems connecting to that. This would help eliminate it being an issue with your on work site networking devices.

kavo87

ishotjr2 wrote: »

Was it the timeout? (as that would not explain it running slowly).

Off topic but: FTP is pain in the backside of a protocol all that active/passive stuff and each server seems to have implemented it their own way. No need for it anymore IMO http/webdav/sftp/sfp all more secure and reliable.

Sorry only seen this now. In the end we used guaranteed bandwidth in the BWM. That seemed to do the trick since the files were so heavy that the users were trying to upload from outside the office. But also upped the timeout as a second measure.