Frequently Asked Questions

  • I’m receiving the following error when I start Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Server: ‘Error starting the Server. This may be due to another service running on the port…’ ?
  • Why my friends cannot connect the server on my computer from their computers in their homes?
  • How to use Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server behind a router?
  • I’m using Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server on a LAN, my colleagues can visit my URL, but my friends cannot visit it through internet.
  • Why my users can connect, but they cannot see directory listings or cannot download/upload files?
  • How to configure Internet Explorer to use the FTP PASV mode?
  • What’s different between Port mode and PASV mode?
  • Does this software support any other web browsers such as Netscape?
  • Does Easy File Sharing FTP Server support SSL?
  • How can I use it on Mac or Linux?
  • Does my computer need to be on-line?
  • What is the largest file size that I can upload to Easy File Sharing FTP Server?
  • Do I need a domain for Easy File Sharing FTP Server?
  • How to make a backup of Easy File Sharing FTP Server user accounts?
  • I have more questions, where can I get additional information?

I’m receiving the following error when I start Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server: ‘Error starting the Server. This may be due to another service running on the port…’.
This is Server reporting that there is another application using Port 21. There are two ways around this. First find the application and shut it down. Please see if you are running IIS. The second solution is to choose another port number such as 8086, 2000, 5060, etc. Just change it on the option tab and click the ‘restart’ button again.

Why my friends cannot connect the server on my computer from their computers in their homes?
First, please connect to internet before you run this program, then check if your friend’s computer can access your computer directly. Tell your friend to ping the IP address of your computer. Please tell him to open a ms-dos command window. Then type ‘ping 169.254.123.179’ and then press the ‘enter’ key. we suppose 169.254.123.179 is the internet IP address of your PC. If your friend can only see ‘Request timed out’ on his computer, it means that your friend cannot access your computer directly at all. There could be a firewall software on your computer, which blocks all outside requests. Please configure the firewall to enable the ports of Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server or disable the firewall.

Every firewall is different and handles FTP requests different. Contact the maker of the firewall to see if they require any special settings to allow FTP traffic through their firewall.
As a general rule open port 21, and a Passive Port range such as 2000-2010. We suppose that you run Easy File Sharing FTP Server on port 21 and setup the PASV port range from 2000 to 2010.

If you are a Windows XP user, please disable Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) or manually open ports in ICF in Windows XP. To manually open a port, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, and then click Contral Panel.
  2. Under Contral Panel, click Network Connections.
  3. Right-click the connection that you use for the Internet, and then click Properties.
  4. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings.
  5. Click Add to open a new port (If your installed SP2, please first click Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Network Connection Settings).
  6. In the Description box, type Easy File Sharing FTP Server : Port 21.
  7. In the Name or IP address of the computer hosting this service on your network box, type 127.0.0.1.
    Note You can specify the IP address of an internal computer. But you typically will use 127.0.0.1.
  8. In the External port and Internal port boxes, type the port number of Easy File Sharing FTP Server 21. Generally, this number is the same.
  9. Click TCP, and then click OK.

You also need to open the ports 2000-2010 for PASV ports as above if your users connect to your server with PASV mode.
Note: Your ISP may block port 21, even they block all ports up to 1024. Please try choosing another port such as 8086 for Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server.
If you connect to internet via a router, please click here.
If your computer on a LAN, please click here.

How to use Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server behind a router?
You need to configure the router to forward port 21 and the PASV ports 2000-2010 to the internal IP address where Easy File Sharing FTP Server is listening. This allows the FTP traffic to be routed through the router and into Easy File Sharing FTP Server. There should be options in the router to forward these ports.


If your computer’s Internal IP is 192.168.1.100, please log into your router with a web browser(This is usually done by entering the Internal IP address of your router 192.168.xxx.xxx in the Address field, and pressing the Enter key), then enter the port number 21 and the IP 192.168.1.100 on the “Forwarding” or “Virtual server” page (suppose that you setupt port 21 for Easy File Sharing ftp server), and then people outside can visit your ftp server. Please note do not tell 192.168.1.100 to your friends directly because it is a Local IP address. You should tell an Internet IP address to your friends so they can access your files on the Internet. To find the Internet IP address of your computer, please visit: http://www.whatismyip.com/
(Note: you cannot access your site using the Internet ip from behind the router, it will only work from outside, so you must use the local ip.)
For more information, please refer to the router’s manual. Each router has its own configuration method and this configuration method is often called ‘Port Forwarding, port mapping’.
The configuration for Easy Address Book Web Server is similar to the configuration for Easy File Sharing Web Server, please visit here for details.

This example shows how to add port forwards on a LinkSys router:

  1. Open a browser on your computer, log into the configuration screen with http://192.168.1.1(The default internal IP for linksys router is 192.168.1.1), and then click on the “Advanced” button as shown below:
  2. On the Advanced page, click the “Forwarding” button to open the port forwarding page as shown below:
  3. On this screen, you can type the PASV ports, FTP port and the internal IP Address of your computer, when you’re done setting up all the port forwards you need, click the “Apply” button to save the settings to the router. You can now safely close your browser.

Settings for popular hardware routers :
Port Forwarding on a D-Link 704P DSL/Cable Router
Port Forwarding on an Asante FR3000 DSL/Cable Router
Click here for more routers settings.

I’m using Easy File Sharing FTP Server/Easy Address Book Web Server on a LAN, my colleagues can visit my URL, but my friends cannot visit it through internet.
If your computer is on a LAN and it connect to Internet with a proxy software such as Sygate or Windows ICS, your friends cannot visit your site because they cannot access your computer directly. To let them visit your computer, please make your computer connect to internet directly via a modem, ISDN, ADSL and so on. Otherwise, you need to redirect the port on your LAN gateway(the computer running proxy server) with some TCP/IP port redirectors such as PortTunnel.

Why my users can connect, but they cannot see directory listings or cannot download/upload files?
It could be that your user connect to Easy File Sharing FTP Server with Port mode and his computer is behind the router/firewall which blocks the data connect. Please tell him to switch his connection type from Active (PORT) mode to Passive (PASV) mode, please read this topic.

If your users connect to your sever with PASV mode and still have the problem, It could be that PASV Mode on your computer might not be setup properly and a router / firewall is blocking the data connection. If there is a router / firewall in front of Easy File Sharing FTP Server make sure to read this topic.

Another common problem is that sometimes Internet Service Providers (ISPs) prevent their customers from running FTP servers by preventing access on the FTP port, number 21. They “listen” to the traffic on this port and disable directory listings or file transfers, or they disable use of this port on incoming connections all together. Please change the port that Easy File Sharing FTP Server listens on from port 21 to some other less-used port number. Usually it is best to try using ports above 1024 first, such as port 2211.

How to configure Internet Explorer to use the FTP PASV mode?
Internet Explorer will use the Port mode by default. To configure it to use the PASV mode, please do the following:

  1. Start Internet Explorer.
  2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
  3. Click the Advanced tab.
  4. Click to select the Use Passive FTP (for firewall and DSL modem compatibility) check box.
  5. Click OK.

What’s different between Port mode and PASV mode?
FTP supports two modes. These modes are called Standard (or PORT or Active) and Passive (or PASV). The Standard mode FTP client sends PORT commands to the FTP server. The Passive mode client sends PASV commands to the FTP Server. These commands are sent over the FTP command channel when establishing the FTP session.

Standard mode FTP clients first establish a connection to TCP port 21 on the FTP server. This connection establishes the FTP command channel. The client sends a PORT command over the FTP command channel when the FTP client needs to send or receive data, such as a folder list or file. The PORT command contains information about which port the FTP client receives the data connection on. In Standard mode, the FTP server always starts the data connection from TCP port 20. The FTP server must open a new connection to the client when it sends or receives data, and the FTP client requests this by using the PORT command again.

Passive mode FTP clients also start by establishing a connection to TCP port 21 on the FTP server to create the control channel. When the client sends a PASV command over the command channel, the FTP server opens an ephemeral port (between 1024 and 5000) and informs the FTP client to connect to that port before requesting data transfer. As in Standard mode, the FTP client must send a new PASV command prior to each new transfer, and the FTP server will await a connection at a new port for each transfer.

You may have to change the mode that is used by the FTP client, depending on the firewall configuration on either the FTP client or the server. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and later support both Standard mode and Passive mode.

Does this software support any other web browsers such as Netscape?
It supports Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, etc. It also supports most FTP Client which support multi-thread downloading with resuming capability, such as CuteFTP, FlashFXP, FTP Voyager, etc.

Does Easy File Sharing FTP Server support SSL?
No, Easy File Sharing FTP Server currently does not support SSL, We recommend you use our another product Easy File Sharing Web Server, which supports 128 bit SSL Encryption.

How can I use it on Mac or Linux?
Easy File Sharing ftp server currently can only run on Windows system, however, from a client side, it is available to any Windows, Mac, Linux or Unix environment.

Does my computer need to be online?
Yes. Otherwise your friends cannot connect to your computer and get files from your computer.

What is the largest file size that I can upload to Easy File Sharing FTP Server?
You can download/upload a single file larger than 4 GB.

Do I need a domain for Easy File Sharing FTP Server?
No, you don’t have to. Just tell the IP Address of your computer to your friends. You can also register a free domain at www.dyndns.org or www.no-ip.com for your computer.

How to make a backup of Easy File Sharing FTP Server user accounts?
To backup the user account information, please copy all the db files(*.sdb) to a save place. These files can be found in the installation folder of Easy File Sharing FTP Server.

I have more questions, where can I get additional information?
Please send your questions to [email protected].