Odd FTP Problems

[Jason Joines]

  I inherited (old admin left, boss said "this is yours") a RH 6.2 
server that runs a web application via apache and mysql.  It generates a 
link that points to an ftp URL to retrieve spreadsheets.  The URL is 
something like ftp://user:password@host/filename.xls.  I had put up an 
ipchains firewall on the box and opened port 21, expecting that I might 
also have to open port 20.  I tested by retrieving a file via ftp from 
the command line on my SuSE desktop system.
  Then I got reports that the users couldn't retrieve the files.  The 
logs showed rejections from the user's machines to a variety of 
arbitrary high tcp ports.  The were not replies but initiated 
connections as I have allowed replies via:

$ipchains -A input -s $anyhost -d $thishost 1024:65535 -p tcp -i eth0 ! 
-y -j ACCEPT

  The users have IE x.x on win2k.  I had one of them try to retrieve a 
file via the win2k command line and that worked just fine.  So, I tried 
Mozilla 1.4rc1 on my SuSE box.  Then I had the same problem as the users 
and the log showed rejections from my box to arbitrary high tcp ports on 
the server.

  It looks like the ftp in the browser's is doing something odd.  The 
server is running wu-ftpd 2.60.

  Any ideas?

Thanks,

Jason Joines
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