HP-UX ftp server and browsers

[Miguel Covas]

I have noticed that since HP-UX 10.20, most browser are unable to render pages when accessing a host via ftp protocol.
I thought that it was a Netscape problem, but since then I had the same problem with Mozilla and even IE5.0 for Mac OS X.

Although command line ftp clients work properly, the ones offering a graphical interface don't.

The most common symptom is that instead of the file name you get a hyperlink on the file permissions.

Of course there is a lot of way to work around the problem (mainly allow http downloads, use command line clients...)

The point is that I am starting to find graphical ftp clients which fail to show the file system tree and whenever I report the case what I get is that HP-UX ftp server is not very popular (!?).

I reported the problem to Bugzilla and I got an answer from the guy in charge of the bug: where can I get access to a public ftp server on HP-UX?

I am considering to put a HP-UX machine on the firewall's DMZ for a while, but... I can believe it. Nobody has never tried to access a HP-UX ftp server from a browser such as Netscape, Mozilla, etc.?

[Bill Hassell]

At least for IE5, there is a nasty (well-known) bug that can be fixed with a setting. The behavior is that when accessing ftp://anything.whatever, IE5 will hang for 10 or 20 seconds and then report that the page cannot be displayed. The problem with the (stupid, oops, colorful) folder view that IE uses by default. Turn off the folder view and all should be well. To fix the IE5 problem, select Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced and make sure the "Enable folder view for FTP sites" is NOT checked.

Of course, make sure directory permissions are at least 755 and the ftp user can see them.

[Lukas Grijander]

Hi Miguel.

I've noticed the same problem.

Take a look at /etc/rc.config.d/LANG, probably contains something like this :

export LANG=es_ES.iso88591

Try this :

- comment this line, so the value of LANG is null, or simply export LANG=
- restart inetd (inetd -c)

and now access with your browser

it works for me.

Hope it helps.
Rafa

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

That's my line Rafael (tm)(c)!

Bill "It works for me" McNAMARA

Later,
Bill

[Lukas Grijander]

Sorry Bill ...

Best regards
Rafa

[Jordan Bean]

I can speak for the following situation:

HPUX 11.00 ftpd
RedHat 7.2 wu-ftpd
IE 5.5 (fully patched)

To HPUX host:
ftp://hpuxhost/ fails
ftp://user@hpuxhost/ works
ftp://user:password@hpuxhost/ works

To Linux host:
ftp://linuxhost/ works, etc.

Because IE assumes anonymous login, it fails miserably when anonymous ftp is disabled on the HPUX host. However, when anonymous login fails on a linux host, IE happily prompts for credentials. Why?

There is a difference in behavior between ftpd on HPUX and wu-ftpd on Linux when anonymous login is disabled. On HPUX, ftpd returns error immediately after entering the anonymous login name. It doesn't prompt for a password. On Linux, wu-ftpd waits until after a password is entered before returning the error.

I suspect that IE expects to be able to enter both a login name and password before acknowledging any errors and prompting again.

I haven't tested this with Mozilla.

[Jordan Bean]

> The most common symptom is that instead of the file name you get a hyperlink on the file permissions.

But I haven't experienced this.

[Jordan Bean]

Interesting. When I disable folder view, my IE 5.5 anonymous ftp sessions either fail or hang.