List files on Windows FTP Server

I just installed SmartFTP 2.0.995.6.
When connecting to a FTP Site hosted on a Windows 2000 Server and based on IIS 5 FTP Services I can't see directory and files. The server contains "hidden" directories, directories that you can reach only knowing that they exist issuing manually a "change directory" operation. I can change directory but then I can't see files and directories in it.
The same FTP site works with no problems with SmartFTP 1.1, showing all files after changing to the correct directory.
I checked the "Directory Listing Options" in the Trasfer Settings, but they are the same on both SmartFTP versions.
It seems that this is a bug. Isn't it?

This is not bug, please search the forums. Previous SmartFTP version had hard-coded Directory Listing Options when IIS was detected. This was removed in 2.x and you need to adjust the Directory Listing Options manually.

This is not bug, please search the forums. Previous SmartFTP version had hard-coded Directory Listing Options when IIS was detected. This was removed in 2.x and you need to adjust the Directory Listing Options manually.

Ok, maybe this is not a bug.
But don't believe I didn't search in the knowledge base or in the forums before posting my message. I have found articles where you or other developers suggest to "play" with the directory listing options. Well I played with that options but the result is that I can't still browse my FTP server directories.
I looked at the different settings in SmartFTP 1.1 but I can't see any difference: "-aL" is the setting used with SmartFTP 1.1 but it doesn't work with 2.0. I tested other FTP clients like WS_FTP or Filezilla: they have no problems in browsing my server.
It's after these tests that I decided to post my message, and it's after my further research that I'm answering you.
I hope that you could publish a definitive answer or solution to this problem. If it's a client configuration mistake, please help me and other users giving us clear instructions for a correct configuration.
And would like to know why did you change a hard-coded configuration which was working so well with SmartFTP 1.1.

Hello ..

It's a configuration mistake. Please purchase a license for technical support.

Thanks.
SmartFTP

I looked at the different settings in SmartFTP 1.1 but I can't see any difference: "-aL" is the setting used with SmartFTP 1.1 but it doesn't work with 2.0.

I tried to explain to you why the Directory Listing Options from 1.x won't work for 2.x, but I'll try again: In 1.x, when an IIS server is detected, the Directory Listing Options specified in the settings are ignored and an internally hard-coded setting is used instead. SmartFTP 2.x does not do this any more since 1) there are IIS version that this does not work for and 2) doing some magic the user does not know of is a bad thing.

The solution is to deselect all Directory Listing Options in 2.x (which basically matches the hard-coded settings of 1.x) for this particular server, so do this in the favorite settings and not globally.

I hope this finally makes it clear.

I tried to explain to you why the Directory Listing Options from 1.x won't work for 2.x, but I'll try again: In 1.x, when an IIS server is detected, the Directory Listing Options specified in the settings are ignored and an internally hard-coded setting is used instead. SmartFTP 2.x does not do this any more since 1) there are IIS version that this does not work for and 2) doing some magic the user does not know of is a bad thing.

The solution is to deselect all Directory Listing Options in 2.x (which basically matches the hard-coded settings of 1.x) for this particular server, so do this in the favorite settings and not globally.

I hope this finally makes it clear.

Your answer is definitely nicer than the mb one.
I'm evaluating SmartFTP 2.0 because I was going to buy SmartFTP 1.1 and now I have to understand if the new release is still useful to me.
I tried different settings for directory listing with no success. Even disabling all the options, as you suggest, doesn't work.
Here is a log of my connection

[20:24:23] SmartFTP v2.0.995.6
[20:24:23] Resolving host name "ftp.zzzzz.tld"
[20:24:23] Connecting to 192.168.0.1 Port: 21
[20:24:24] Connected to ftp.zzzzz.tld.
[20:24:24] 220 POLLUX Microsoft FTP Service (Version 5.0).
[20:24:24] USER iok
[20:24:24] 331 Password required for iok.
[20:24:24] PASS (hidden)
[20:24:24] 230-POLLUX - Web Server
[20:24:24] 230 User iok logged in.
[20:24:24] SYST
[20:24:24] 215 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
[20:24:24] FEAT
[20:24:24] 500 'FEAT': command not understood
[20:24:24] TYPE I
[20:24:24] 200 Type set to I.
[20:24:24] REST 0
[20:24:24] 350 Restarting at 0.
[20:24:24] PWD
[20:24:24] 257 "/" is current directory.
[20:24:24] TYPE A
[20:24:24] 200 Type set to A.
[20:24:24] PASV
[20:24:24] 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,0,1,4,170).
[20:24:24] Opening data connection to 192.168.0.1 Port: 1194
[20:24:24] LIST
[20:24:24] 125 Data connection already open; Transfer starting.
[20:24:24] 0 bytes transferred. (0 byte/s) (60 ms)
[20:24:25] 226 Transfer complete.
[20:24:30] CWD /oxys
[20:24:30] 250 CWD command successful.
[20:24:30] PWD
[20:24:30] 257 "/oxys" is current directory.
[20:24:30] PASV
[20:24:30] 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,0,1,4,171).
[20:24:30] Opening data connection to 192.168.0.1 Port: 1195
[20:24:30] LIST
[20:24:30] 125 Data connection already open; Transfer starting.
[20:24:30] 96 bytes transferred. (1,56 KB/s) (60 ms)
[20:24:31] 226 Transfer complete.

As you can see the command is "LIST" with no additional options, but I can't see any file or folder.
I want you to note that SmartFTP 1.1 issue a "LIST -aL" command, as I can read from the logs, and it works.
Another note: if I right click on the "/oxys" directory and select "Show raw listing" here is what I get:

01-02-06 06:50PM 30993869 nvidia.zip
05-13-02 05:13PM <DIR> Site

I'm not exactly a newby and I believe that the solution is not so simple...
A Microsoft FTP server is quite common on the internet and a default configuration that give such problems doesn't seem so good to me...

Post the log without the censored SYST reply:

[20:24:24] SYST
[20:24:24] 215 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Thanks
-Mat

Please try again with the latest version from:
https://www.smartftp.com/download

It includes a workaround for special situations like yours.

Regards,
SmartFTP

Thank you very very much!

The very latest release (2.0.995.8) works! Even mantaining the "strict" ftp inspection on the PIX Firewall. It works as the 1.1 release.

Thank you again.

A lot of FTP clients depend on a correct SYST reply to choose the format of the list decoder. If the SYST reply is wrong or censored as in your case your users will end up with problems.
What are FTP clients doing if the list parser format is unknown? They will try all available formats until one works. This will slow down the listing decoding process. And what exactly is the benefit from removing the SYST reply when the server software including version number is shown in the welcome message: Microsoft FTP Service (5.0)? Due to these reasons I cannot recommend Cisco's "FTP strict" feature.

Regards,
SmartFTP

The SYST reply is often censored for security reasons. I agree that it is not a great safety measure, but it can actually help when dealing with older and buggy ftp server software that are more protected hiding their real nature. Something similar is often applied to SMTP servers answers too.
And when I say "often" I mean that it is not only a Cisco's feature. Some people, particularly in the past (but still today in the more sophisticated environments), used to artificially modify their server's answers, both FTP and SMTP, for security reasons. Some FTP servers (and SMTP servers too) still allow users to modify the SYST reply message, and make this configuration not so difficult to do.
However I want you to know that the SYST reply masking is not related to the "strict" option for FTP inspection in the newset PIX operating system. PIX OSs, since 7.0, have introduced more granularity in protocol inspection configuration and the "mask SYST reply" is another option, indipendent from the "strict" one.
I suppose that most of the PIXes with OS 7.x would adopt the "mask SYST reply" option because it was the default behaviour, hard-coded inside the feature without the chance to disable it, with previous OSs releases when FTP inspection was used (the old "fixup FTP" command).
So you should consider a couple of remarks:

1. don't you think that basing SmartFTP behaviour on SYST reply is not so smart in the real internet world? And what about SmartFTP 1.1 (and other FTP clients) which works well with modern and past PIXes OSs?

2. the issue I submitted is really related to the missing SYST answer? I don't think so. In fact, before posting my message on the forum telling you about the "strict" option I tried disabling it, but I kept the "mask SYST reply" feature and SmartFTP 2.0.995.6 (the affected release) was working, even with a censored SYST reply.
I think that the issue is strictly ( ) related to the "strict" option, that is to commands issued in a way that Cisco consider "anomalous" or out of the RFC standards.

As usual I hope my suggestions could be of some help to you.