Question

FTP Upload

S
Badge

I’m having trouble maintaining a website with my T-mobile Home Internet. I can connect to my FTP host, but it won’t let me transfer files to keep my site updated. Filezillia will work but my other two devices fail. I have no way of making adjustments to them either. I heard T-mobile is putting a block causing people to have this issue. I have contacted their technical support but it was to no avail.

This is most disappointing. Not only for me but for others who have a website. I’m going to have to live with it because it’s the only 5G network I can get. There is no fiber here, satellite is expensive and goes out in the rain. I had AT&T which worked fine but it was falling apart since they want everyone to upgrade to 5G. They wanted several hundred dollars to upgrade which I don’t have. T-mobile gave me the device.

I feel this is unfair and T-mobile should do something to allow FTP to work properly.

10 replies

G

Ok, I was having some the same issues with online gaming. Because t mobile blocks UDP protocol. If you use a VPN it should resolve the issue. Try using speedify. They have a trial version u can run and won't cost u anything. Thing is itll cost you if it works. I know why is t mobile blocking some file transfer protocols. I have no idea. I wish they change the required NAT type to or atleast the common ports for video games. I think they'll get around to changing alot of things to better serve us but it'll be a long road. I've had Verizon for 8 years and I never get the speeds with them that I do with t mobile. So I'll stick around. I hope this helps.

S
Badge

Tried Speedify. It did not work.

D
Badge +2

I cannot get Filezilla or Winscp to work. They connect but will not pull a directory listing. It’s because the router does port reassignment over the local network. Packets arrive from the server with one port, but the router changes that to a different port.

If you got Filezilla to work please say how you did that.

I’m going to see if I can use active mode and have it send on the port being mapped to.

D

I moved over to T-Mobile Home Internet about 2 months ago.  I use winscp, filezilla and terminal regularly in maintenance of several web sites.  WinSCP and filezilla had worked fine for me until this weekend when directory listing mostly appeared to time out and any file edit/saves (say via winscp) failed as well. This had been working without issue, so something in my 5G coverage has to have changed.  Very frustrating! I found Guardian61’s post above and using a VPN resolved the issue for me, though likely for a different reason (NAT/Port Map/IP duration). FTP is a TCP based service exclusively. There is no UDP component to FTP.

I’m still wondering what happened and why and have a ticket open with T-Mobile.  As a test to see if possibly something had changed in the site hosting environment or on my laptop I hopped over to a coffee shop and exercised both filezilla and winscp using my existing configurations.  The ftp services worked as expected (without VPN) and indicate no change in the endpoints, that leaves the network.

F
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +16

@iTinkeralot  i see you posting in this area quite a bit. any ideas on this one? well out of my area of expertise lol.

***I like many others come onto this site for assistance and to help others. Marking a reply as helpful or correct helps others with like issues when they try to search the site for assistance. I do not work for Tmobile and my suggestions and or opinions are my own**.~~~~ The site here is primarily peer to peer with some TMO moderation to keep the site in order..They do not have account access..The prefered method would be to contact TMO through either calling in (tier 1 support) or by contacting them through either Facebook/Twitter (tier 2 support)**~~~~
D
Badge +2

I moved over to T-Mobile Home Internet about 2 months ago.  I use winscp, filezilla and terminal regularly in maintenance of several web sites.  WinSCP and filezilla had worked fine for me until this weekend when directory listing mostly appeared to time out and any file edit/saves (say via winscp) failed as well. This had been working without issue, so something in my 5G coverage has to have changed.  Very frustrating! I found Guardian61’s post above and using a VPN resolved the issue for me, though likely for a different reason (NAT/Port Map/IP duration). FTP is a TCP based service exclusively. There is no UDP component to FTP.

I’m still wondering what happened and why and have a ticket open with T-Mobile.  As a test to see if possibly something had changed in the site hosting environment or on my laptop I hopped over to a coffee shop and exercised both filezilla and winscp using my existing configurations.  The ftp services worked as expected (without VPN) and indicate no change in the endpoints, that leaves the network.

The problem is T-Mobile. As a leading edge company it uses !PV4 over IPV6. It does not do IPV4 natively and maps IPV4 over IPV6. For many things this is transparent and works fine, but for FTP the ports change. Because of that an error occurs saying the data coming back is not on the same port it was sent. A VPN resolves the issue. I paid $85 for two years for a VPN that works for me.

iTinkeralot
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

steviebaby59

One thing you have to take into consideration is the FTP is blocked maybe due to anonymous connections. You might be able to get a VPN and use FTP or SFTP or SCP to move files to/from the server. I would recommend using SFTP or SCP. SFTP uses port 22 same as SSH for authentication. FTP uses TCP port 21 and has no security authentication. I would suggest a more secure transfer method to start with. There are too many bad actors out there. If you have the traffic in a VPN tunnel that is one thing but exposed is another. If the information is not that critical maybe but a good VPN is worth it if you have time and money invested and can’t afford to be breached. There are a number of VPN options out there. I was looking into expressVPN and it seems to be pretty good but I have not decided. It is just a matter of time.

D
Badge +2

steviebaby59

One thing you have to take into consideration is the FTP is blocked maybe due to anonymous connections. You might be able to get a VPN and use FTP or SFTP or SCP to move files to/from the server. I would recommend using SFTP or SCP. SFTP uses port 22 same as SSH for authentication. FTP uses TCP port 21 and has no security authentication. I would suggest a more secure transfer method to start with. There are too many bad actors out there. If you have the traffic in a VPN tunnel that is one thing but exposed is another. If the information is not that critical maybe but a good VPN is worth it if you have time and money invested and can’t afford to be breached. There are a number of VPN options out there. I was looking into expressVPN and it seems to be pretty good but I have not decided. It is just a matter of time.

None of the things you say make any difference if the internet service provider remaps ports. As I said, T-MOBILE maps IPV4 over IPV6. That breaks FTP and other protocols.

iTinkeralot
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Others have successfully used VPNs and I do not see any indication T-Mobile is doing so.  There are plenty of VPN providers that offer a 30 day trial so it might be a solution. I hope you find a suitable solution to the problem. 

J

Thought I had it fixed with T-Mobile, but I was connected to Specturm. Never mind. Can’t find a way to delete this. So I’m just editing it

Reply


New badge winners

  • Curious George
    Tolersonhas earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    werdnahas earned the badge Curious George
  • Smarty Pants
    mcottermanhas earned the badge Smarty Pants
  • Curious George
    BklynGrlhas earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    Marcs26has earned the badge Curious George
Show all badges
Terms & Conditions