Port Direction

[PolyPill]

I would like to know if it is possible to redirect a port on a win2k server, either at the server or at the cisco 3600 router which is the gateway.

Here's what I want to do, we're ditching IIS because it sucks, but the ftp is part of IIS. I want to redirect port 21 going to that server to another server on the network. I was thinking maybe set something up in the access list of the router or maybe there's a routing option in win2k that I am not aware of. Setting this up would be easier than trying to tell 100+ computer illiterate users that they have to change the IP to blah.163 instead of blah.170.

[Kingslayer]

The router would be the best and the easiest place to do this. Mainly because routing the ftp request is what you want to do.

All you have to do is tell the router to forward all FTP requests on port 21 to the IP address of the machine that you want to have the FTP server on.

Don't ask me how to do this on that model of Cisco as I have no clue. But trust me, doing it on the router is the easiest way to do it. Both in setup and future maintenance.


Added:

Just reread your post and the section pertaining to telling the ignorant on why they need to change their IP address to the FTP server.

Are these users accessing the FTP via LAN or WAN? Are they coming through the router to get to the FTP in the first place? What type of network are you using? Sounds like a hybrid to me if my assumptions are correct.

The big thing is that if these users are connecting to the FTP from inside the LAN, bypassing the router, then putting port forwards in isn't going to do a bit of good.

If these are internal computers accessing the FTP then they will have to update their FTP IP addy's. That is because you have removed the only piece of software that will make the connection for them....IIS.

[PolyPill]

It's hybrid, but for security reasons the servers are on another port of the router, and the clients have to go through the router for the ftp. I assumed doing it on the router would be the easiest.

So far this is the closest I've found http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/28.html

It explains what to do when using NAT, but I'm wondering if it will work without NAT or using real world ips on both sides.

I have a visio drawing I made of the network if you need to see it, but I know everyone has to go through the router.

[Kingslayer]

Yep, just do a port redirect on incoming FTP on ports 21 to the new FTP server's internal IP addy. That should do it. Now your clients may still have to update their FTP IP in order to reach the FTP.

But the route will be in for them to do so.

I would recommend giving your FTP server a domain name and letting DNS do any name resolution, and let the router forward the port, that way if it ever changes in the future, you're clients wont have to constantly change the address. The network will take care of the request for them.

[rugby]

Originally posted by Kingslayer
Yep, just do a port redirect on incoming FTP on ports 21 to the new FTP server's internal IP addy. That should do it. Now your clients may still have to update their FTP IP in order to reach the FTP.

But the route will be in for them to do so.

I would recommend giving your FTP server a domain name and letting DNS do any name resolution, and let the router forward the port, that way if it ever changes in the future, you're clients wont have to constantly change the address. The network will take care of the request for them.

You probably should set up an access list on the 3600 that will only allow ftp traffic to the ip of the ftp server. This way you can have multiple ftp sites if you want to on different ip addresses. Keep in mind all ip's for these servers have to be public in order for someone outside the network to see them. Either that or you need some sort of network contiguity unless you're using tunneling.