Q: Why can't I connect to FTP server?

A: Here are some possible causes:

1. If you connect FTP via your local network, please try to connect your NAS and PC directly (without router and switch) to check if they work fine or not. If this works, the node (router, switch, etc.) in your local network may have some problem on setting or processing; If it still not work, please check the status of your PC and NAS (please also refer clause c and d).
2. If you connect FTP via the internet, please confirm that the network environment of your NAS is available. If your NAS is connected to a router or AP, please set DMZ or port forwarding on router first. The ports that FTP service need are 20 and 21.
3. FTP server on NAS is disabled. Please enable it from system UI:
   • FW v3.xx.xx: [System Network] -> [FTP] -> enable FTP.
   • FW v5.xx.xx: [Network Service] -> [FTP] -> enable FTP.
4. Enabled [FTP] and [Secure FTP (Explicit)] at the same time.
   • The [Secure FTP (Explicit)] function is for transforming the protocol from "ftp://" to "ftpes://" to connect to FTP. If this service is enabled, you can connect to FTP via "ftpes://" only and "ftp://" will not work.
   • If you don't need this service, please disable it from system UI.
     FW v3.xx.xx: [System Network] -> [FTP] -> enable/disable Secure FTP.
   • FW v5.xx.xx: [Network Service] -> [FTP] -> enable/disable Secure FTP.
     

Q: What is Secure FTP (Explicit)？

A: In the FTP setting page of Thecus NAS, user need to enable FTP service before enable secure FTP (Explicit) service. After this service is enabled, the normal FTP connection will be unreachable. If user doesn't have requirements about secure FTP (Explicit), please do NOT enable this service.

User needs to connect FTP via TLS/SSL after this function is enabled, and please use ftpes://NAS_IP instead of ftp://NAS_IP to make connection. And, this function will use specific passive ports (default: 30000 - 32000) instead of port 20, but port 21 is still needed.

The FTP client software needs to support this function to connect. For the setup steps for the connection via TLS/SSL, please refer to the help or the manual of FTP client.

For more information of secure FTP (Explicit), please refer to the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTPS 

Q: I connect FTP via Internet Explorer directly, and I just uploaded file/folder to FTP, but the file/folder name is transformed to be garbage out and even cannot open it, why??

A: If the character sets of server and client are different, this issue may be happened. Due to Windows does not work pretty well during transferring files between different character sets, using professional FTP client software is recommended. We take FileZilla as an example, you can connect FTP via FileZilla without any character set issues if you set character set as "UTF-8".

If you need to connect FTP via IE directly, please remember to set encode of FTP as same as your Windows.