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I am having a simple private network consisting of a client, a router, and a server. The server is hosting an FTP server, and I need to configure port forwarding on my router to access the FTP server on the client. But if the server is hosting an HTTP server, it requires no router config. Why is it so?

All devices are not connected to any other network.

Update::

I reset my router, and did not do port forwarding at all, and was able to access http as well as ftp server on my client.

My chrome browser was having some problem as ftp client, worked on mozilla firefox.

Now, this means no port forwarding is necessary within a private network(LAN)?

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  • 2
    What ports do you need to forward and to which machine?
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Dec 20, 2020 at 23:49
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    The HTTP server software might support UPnP and be automatically setting up port forwarding without intervention. You need to describe what tools you are using and how you have set them up.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 8:57
  • @user1686 Using default ports, ie 80 for http server and 21 for ftp server. In my router config, i need to forward port 21 to access ftp server on client.
    – Rajat Aggarwal
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 16:26
  • If you don't set up port forwarding to the HTTP server, how does the router know which machine to forward incoming HTTP connections to?
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:06
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    @RajatAggarwal The term "port forwarding" usually refers to configuring a router to forward some packets that come in from the outside of the private network to a particular machine on the private network. If you are referring to some handling of requests that originate from the private network, you probably don't mean "port forwarding".
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:24

1 Answer 1

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The server is hosting an FTP server, and I need to configure port forwarding on my router to access the FTP server on the client. But if the server is hosting an HTTP server, it requires no router config.

From personal experience, I have never encountered a router that did not require port forwarding for HTTP service. But assuming what you describe is accurate, it sounds as if the router is already configured to forward HTTP requests on a specific port to your server but not FTP requests (they are separate protocols with generally separate rules). Unfortunately, you would need to go into more detail for a (potentially) more exact answer as to why your router might be processing HTTP requests without additional configuration steps.

Edit

This means no port forwarding is necessary within a private network (LAN)?

Port forwarding generally allows requests from outside networks (e.g. the internet) to be given to a local computer on your LAN. Requests (ex. HTTP, FTP) from one computer to another from within the LAN (e.g. LAN PC 1 contacts LAN PC 2) typically don't require port forwarding since they aren't coming from another network. Note that firewalls anywhere on the LAN can still block these requests.

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  • Using node.js for http server and windows iis for ftp server.
    – Rajat Aggarwal
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 16:28
  • Please see updated question. It seems no port forwarding is required within LAN.
    – Rajat Aggarwal
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:28
  • Added a small update to my answer. Regarding Chrome versus Firefox, I believe current versions of Chrome have browser FTP (ftp://) URLs blocked/unworkable by default.
    – Anaksunaman
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 19:57

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