Firewall Blocking Ftp From Windows Explorer

fswebb1@yahoo.co.uk

Just upgraded from Internet Security 2015 to IS 2016, cause SafePay stopped working in latest Firefox and I can no longer access ftp through Windows Explorer. I remember this being a pain in the backside getting working in 2015, but trying to get this working in 2016 is even worse - to the point that unless BD support tells me how I won't be bothering renewing my license in a months time!

BD Support - please help - I've trawled the forums and this is a common problem which should have an easy to find solution somewhere on here!

PDP

I have found a solution to this problem that works for me:

As explained by Bitdefender in another thread, the issue seems to be that Windows Explorer by default uses a different port every time to connect to FTP servers ("passive" FTP). So they would have to allow all ports for Explorer, but that isn't a good idea from a security perspective because malware could inject itself into the Explorer process and use it for undetected communications.

The solution therefore is to force Explorer to only use the traditional standard FTP ports (so-called "active" FTP). This is done as follows:

1. Open Internet Explorer (yes, Internet Explorer - Windows Explorer uses those settings under the hood)

2. Go to Tools - Internet Settings - Advanced

3. Locate the setting called "Use passive FTP" and uncheck it

4. Click OK and close IE

After I did this, FTP access from Windows Explorer worked perfectly (provided that the "Windows Explorer traffic on FTP" rule in Bitdefender is set to Allow).

NB: There may still be issues if your network environment is configured in a way that does not allow active FTP, for example, due to hardware firewall settings. In that case, please contact your network admin, my knowledge on that is far too limited so I won't be able to help you.