IIS, FTP, UPnP, Linksys Router, Windows Firewall...grrr

Okay,

I hope I don't get lost in the details but here I go. I have a simple system, personally based, XP pro, hoping to setup a FTP server for friends as well as my own external connections sometimes. Whatever. Not the point.

Ftp is All set up through IIS. I have two Network Connections: Local Area Network, and Incoming Connections. Both of which are configured properly.

Now here is the issue: I have a dual NAT routed system, with two Linksys BEF???? whatever routers, piggybacked. So the outside is LAN: 192.X.X.1, and WAN to the world. the Inside is WAN: 192.X.X.2, and LAN 192.Y.Y.1. So all computers on the network are currently 192.Y.Y.? and we all know how that works. Why the dual system? well LONG term project that is not worth going into now.

I have updated the port forwarding to use port 21, and pass it from the Outer to the Inner, and the Inner to my system. I have used both port range forwarding, as well as UPnP forwarding. Both work.
However, when I turn on Windows Firewall, which has in the exceptions list "UPnP Framework" and "FTP Server" listed, I try to log on to my FTP server, by cmd prompt ftp my_global_ip. I connect, and can enter in user information as I should. However, I type dir and get this for my first error:



The "Abort" line does not come until I CTRL-C it, and the ftp program breaks from its current attempt. any further attempts to use the dir command results in the "150" line until i CTRL-C again.

I disable Windows Firewall, and voila it all works as it should.

Question: Is the Firewall (built into WinXP) really necessary, given my dual router setup, and if appropriate, how would I resolve this issue.

Thanks
Fluffy

You're probably safe without the windows firewall. Maybe ask over in the networking or ftp forum if you need more help. All this isn't really an IIS issue.