FTP Problems within Windows in Parallels

lfedje · Nov 20, 2006

Hi

I am new to this forum, and to the whole world of firstly Mac and secondly Parallels. I have been a dedicated PC user for the last 25 - 30 years and finally decided to make the leap to a Mac.

I purchased the iMac Core 2 Duo 24" and got it up and running in no time flat. I then installed a host of Mac software and all is still well. I can't say enough good about the Mac world!

I then installed Parallels and Windows within a 60GB partition, installed all of my Windows Apps without a hitch - great product. A little short when it comes to it's Video driver, but that's all I can complain about.

To this point, there are only two functions that I have not been able to resolve.

1.) I do a little bit of Web Design work in a program called Web Studio by Back to the Beach. This program has a built in web uploader, however when I try to use it, although everything appears to work as it should, when I go to the site everything is messed up. It appears that something is preventing a clean upload.

The same thing happens when I try to use a stand alone FTP program called WS_FTP Lite!

I can get around all of this by using FireFox and FireFTP, but I would really like to get the built in WS Uploader to work.

2.) The other thing is a suite of Software for designing Flash objects. This program requires the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control. When I try to start the program it gives me the option to download and install, which I have done several times and each time I try to start one of the programs I get the same message, so I simply can't get in.

Ok, I finally got in, and that was by installing Macromedia Flash 8, however, I still have the question as to what might be going on.

It sounds to me like this all has to do with something blocking ftp and in the second case some kind of registry issue.

Loren

lchristmann · Nov 30, 2006

I've been having a very similar problem. For me, I can't upload .zip files correctly at all from Parallels. I'm on a MacbookPro 15" 2ghz 2gig Ram. I've recently moved to the Mac. Previously, I've used my Dell PC to do all my work, and uploading all my client stuff to our servers. I've used either Internet Explorer or SmartFTP to do that and have never had a problem on my Dell.

Well, now, uploading via SmartFTP or Internet Explorer on Parallels, every single zip file that I upload somehow gets corrupted. It appears to upload correctly, it looks correct on the server, I even download the file and it appears fine on my desktop, but the moment I try and unzip it, it gives me an error:

"Unable to open archive, Archive Verification Failed"

I've tested this repeatedly on different machines and different operating systems and different servers. The conclusion i've come to is that 1) the original zip files are sound. 2) transferring them from computer to computer using the same process outside of parallels is sound 3) the only time the zip files get corrupted is when I upload them via Parallels

Not sure what to do about this, is this some wierd bug in Parallels that somehow doesn't fully allow a file to upload completely? SmartFTP's log tells me everything went up there just fine. But it's not fine in the end...

lfedje · Dec 3, 2006

I have managed to get WS-FTP Lite to upload correctly (not sure how, but it now appears to work just fine), but I found something that works a whole lot better, and that's FireFTP http://fireftp.mozdev.org/ . It has to be used with FireFox. It's an open source uploader and I haven't had a problem with it.

We are still working on one FTP problem, and hope to get it sorted out.

Loren

AlanH · Dec 3, 2006

What networking option are you guys using? If you are using Parallels NAT, it may be that you have to ensure that your FTP software is running in Passive mode, as Active isn't too good with a lot of NAT programs.

lfedje · Dec 3, 2006

That was how I got WS-FTP Lite working. I set it to Passive mode.

Could you explain a bit deeper as to what you mean by "Network Option"? and "If you are using Parallels NAT"? What is NAT?

Totally new to the Mac world, and further to Windows in Parallels!

Any help would be appreciated.

Loren

AlanH · Dec 3, 2006

NAT = Network Address Translation. This is not Mac-specific, it's the way FTP works in a workd of Internet connection sharing.

When you run a VM in Parallels, it behaves like another computer with its own Ethernet interface. In order to communicate with the Mac, and with your Internet connection, it has to have its own IP address. When you have two "boxes" with different P addresses you have to have a way for them to share your Internet connection, and they both have to have unique addresses.

The Internet sharing can be via a hardware router or the OS X Internet Sharing, or use Parallels own software to share. In all case you are probably using a form of Network Address Translation so that the two IP addresses can both merge their connections onto the wire that connects you to the Internet. And when something out on the Internet wants to send stuff back to you then whatever is arranging the sharing has to sort our which address it's for - like an internal post system in an office.

Some NAT systems can only work this return routing out if the FTP connections all start at your VM. Which is where FTP Passive mode comes in. It tells the remote FTP server to wait for your connections - "don't try to ring me, I'll ring you".

lchristmann · Dec 3, 2006

I'm using Passive mode, and I've tried it both with Shared Networking and with Bridged Networking. Both give me the same problems, where i can upload/download the zip file fine, but when I open the file that I have uploaded and then downloaded, the zip file is corrupt and won't open. The size is the same and the zip file is even recognized as a zip file. It just can't be extracted... I can upload some other files fine, like .SWF, .HTML, .FLA, but not ZIP or EXE.

AlanH · Dec 3, 2006

lchristmann said:
I'm using Passive mode, and I've tried it both with Shared Networking and with Bridged Networking. Both give me the same problems, where i can upload/download the zip file fine, but when I open the file that I have uploaded and then downloaded, the zip file is corrupt and won't open. The size is the same and the zip file is even recognized as a zip file. It just can't be extracted... I can upload some other files fine, like .SWF, .HTML, .FLA, but not ZIP or EXE.

Are you using Binary mode in the FTP client? I don't now what a .swf or .fla is, but .html files are 7-bit ASCII text. A .zip has to be transferred using 8-bit encoding in Binary mode.

lchristmann · Dec 3, 2006

Yes, here's the log:

[17:18:21] TYPE I
[17:18:21] 200 Type set to I.
[17:18:22] SIZE House_Windows.zip
[17:18:22] 213 334544
[17:18:22] MDTM House_Windows.zip
[17:18:22] 213 20061204011707
[17:18:22] PASV
[17:18:22] 227 Entering Passive Mode (207,195,226,60,7,208)
[17:18:22] Opening data connection to 207.195.226.60 Port: 2000
[17:18:22] RETR House_Windows.zip
[17:18:22] 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for House_Windows.zip (334544 Bytes).
[17:18:27] 334544 bytes transferred. (58.7 KB/s) (00:00:05)
[17:18:27] 226 Transfer complete.
[17:18:27] MDTM House_Windows.zip
[17:18:28] 213 20061204011707
[17:18:28] Transfer successful.

Now, using the exact same setttings with the exact same program on my Dell Windows XP machine works perfectly fine, as does uploading the same .zip to the same server using "Cyberduck" on my Mac. The only time the file gets corrupted is when i upload that file from Parallels using various programs and using 3 different servers. Same result each time of a corrupted .zip file.

lfedje · Dec 4, 2006

Thanks for all of the information you have provided so far, AlanH.

From what I have read, I am not using NAT which would be Shared Networking. I am using Bridged Ethernet - Default Adapter.

I did get one of the FTP programs working by selecting Passive mode. The one that I am having trouble with is a built-in FTP in a Web Design program. There is no way to change this to passive mode. I can talk to the developers to see if they can change this, but that's a wait and see situation.

I find all of this networking stuff quite complicated, however I will get through it.

Just as a matter of curiosity, what is the safest configuration to use?

Loren