how to change default builtin Telnet, FTP, WebShare ports?

zozo
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hey all,



if some of you recall I had major sharing woes because, as I finally found out, my cable isp blocks all ports below a certain number... at least FTP, Telnet (21-22), and Web (80) are blocked.



I downloaded CrushFTP and its just an amazing piece oh software... best FTP server I have ever seen. I changed the port to anything above 5000 and ftp works finally.



But what about builtin Telnet and Personal Web Sharing? In OS 9 you had the option to change the port number for Personal Web Sharing. Is there any .plist .com .pref I can hack to change its port number? Also, if I could use builtin FTP rather than depend on Crush, that would be great, thanks



ZO

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    brian j.brian j. Posts: 139member
    I'm not a system administrator, so there may be better ways, but:



    I think you can change the ftpd, httpd, and telnetd ports by modifying your /etc/services file. You may need to add the following line to your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file to change you Personal Web sharing port (to port 8080 in the example):



    Listen 8080



    To get more information, type the following in a Terminal:



    man httpd

    man telnetd

    man ftpd

    man services



    Hope this helps.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    brian j.brian j. Posts: 139member
    Oh, I forgot to say something. ALWAYS make a backup copy of a configuration file before modifying it.



    I don't want to be blamed for messing up someone's computer...
  • Reply 3 of 9
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    ZO, not sure if this is an option, but your ISP sounds like they kinda suck. You might try their immediate competition, ie DSL if on cable, cable if on DSL.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I'm with stimuli on this one. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    Find another provider if possible. If you're in some long-term contract, check the fine print and if there's no mention of the port-blocking, raise hell.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Well, I am in Belgium and Cable is provided by neighborhood. Rarely will there be two of them in the same neighborhood unfortunately. I am stuck with Chello which is a huge worldwide company. They are solid and reliable and I guess they block those ports for the 'greater good' so that hackers can't hack into people's computers that are always on... basically circumventing the need for newbie or unknowing users to use/install Firewalls.



    I have to still read the fine print, but I will try Brian J's suggestions. Worse comes to worse I can use CrushFTP for FTP and I just saw yesterday that on VersionTracker that SSH Helper was updated. I have yet to install it but from what I gather it lets me setup the SSH Telnet server settings (port and everything) so that would be good. The only thing missing would be for Personal Web Sharing... I have also downloade ROXEN Server for that, but looks damn complicated.. havent even installed it yet.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Regarding Cable vs DSL, from what my friends say and what I have seen online, its still a shaky issue... works - doesnt work type things. Yes, it is faster by far (my DL speed is capped at 65K/sec and UL speed is 15K/sec) but I really havent had that mush problems with it. The only thing is from around 18:00 to 22:00 it gets a bit slow sometimes as tons of people start using it much more.



    I'm also a bit on a tight budget right now so investing in a new ADSL Modem isnt what I can do right now.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    I doubt it has to do with them ADSL modem, as that would be far too easy to circumvent. Also, their reasons for blocking incoming ports is more likely to do with the fact they are cheap bastards than a concern over their clients getting hacked. Fewer ports = less traffic, = more people on the same trunk.



    try 'man apache' or whatever, as getting these services to use higher ports is/should be pretty simple. An extra arg when it is initialized. ie -p 3120 or something.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    What I cant figure is that people (like me) who want to host, share, etc will find ways around it and use the bandwidth anyway. A newbie who just barely knows how a computer works isnt going to ftp, telnet, nor web share and therefore will not take up bandwidth.



    Ah well, all the same to me in the end seeing that I will be getting around it one way or another... I feel a "Fvck the system" fits in well at this point
  • Reply 9 of 9
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    Worst comes to worst, check out OSX firewall rules, and pipe outgoing data on port 80 to 8080 and incoming data on 8080 to 80.
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