Ftp

[jjimenez101]

Ok, so my question is:

Let's say a friend of mine has an FTP server at his house, and I have FTP client software installed on my computer in my house, and we want to be able to share files through FTP.

So, he and I, of-course have our own ISPs, and these ISPs provide private IP addresses for our home networks. For example, his IP address is 192.168.1.101, and mine is 192.168.2.202.

Here is where I get confused. So in my FTP client software, I specify the FTP server that I want to connect to (Which is His), so I specify the IP address of 192.168.1.101. How in the WORLD would my FTP client software know that it is his server that I want to connect to, being that there are soooo many hosts with this private IP address (Private home networks, businesses etc..).

Thanks in advance

 

[Legodude522]

Those IP address are not your ISP provided addresses. That is your local IPs provided by your routers.

Go to http://www.ipchicken.com/ to find out your outside broadcasted IP.

 

[jjimenez101]

That makes sense.

So I would specify the Public Address of the router and not of his computer right?

So if there are multiple computers on his home network, how will the router know which one is the FTP server?

Thanks again.

 

[Legodude522]

That makes sense.

So I would specify the Public Address of the router and not of his computer right?

So if there are multiple computers on his home network, how will the router know which one is the FTP server?

Thanks again.

Magic? I honestly don't know but afaik, it will figure it out. Just make sure the router's firewall is configured correctly.

 

[berry120]

Magic? I honestly don't know but afaik, it will figure it out. Just make sure the router's firewall is configured correctly.

Magic?!

You'll generally need to use port forwarding to get it to work correctly - there will be a section in your router config for this. You'll most likely be forwarding port 21 to the internal IP address where the server is based; that's how your router knows where the FTP server is located (well technically speaking it neither knows nor cares, just forwards all port 21 traffic, which is used for FTP, onto your server.)