What is the difference between active and passive FTP?
Active and passive are the two modes that FTP can run in.
For background, FTP actually uses two channels between client and server, the command and data channels, which are actually separate TCP connections.
The command channel is for commands and responses while the data channel is for actually transferring files.
This separation of command information and data into separate channels a nifty way of being able to send commands to the server without having to wait for the current data transfer to finish. As per the RFC, this is only mandated for a subset of commands, such as quitting, aborting the current transfer, and getting the status.
In active mode, the client establishes the command channel but the server is responsible for establishing the data channel. This can actually be a problem if, for example, the client machine is protected by firewalls and will not allow unauthorised session requests from external parties.
In passive mode, the client establishes both channels. We already know it establishes the command channel in active mode and it does the same here.
However, it then requests the server (on the command channel) to start listening on a port (at the servers discretion) rather than trying to establish a connection back to the client.
As part of this, the server also returns to the client the port number it has selected to listen on, so that the client knows how to connect to it.
Once the client knows that, it can then successfully create the data channel and continue.
More details are available in the RFC: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc959.txt
I recently run into this question in my work place so I think I should say something more here. I will use image to explain how the FTP works as an additional source for previous answer.
Active mode:
Passive mode:
In an active mode configuration, the server will attempt to connect to a random client-side port. So chances are, that port wouldn't be one of those predefined ports. As a result, an attempt to connect to it will be blocked by the firewall and no connection will be established.
A passive configuration will not have this problem since the client will be the one initiating the connection. Of course, it's possible for the server side to have a firewall too. However, since the server is expected to receive a greater number of connection requests compared to a client, then it would be but logical for the server admin to adapt to the situation and open up a selection of ports to satisfy passive mode configurations.
So it would be best for you to configure server to support passive mode FTP. However, passive mode would make your system vulnerable to attacks because clients are supposed to connect to random server ports. Thus, to support this mode, not only should your server have to have multiple ports available, your firewall should also allow connections to all those ports to pass through!
To mitigate the risks, a good solution would be to specify a range of ports on your server and then to allow only that range of ports on your firewall.
For more information, please read the official document.
Redacted version of my article FTP Connection Modes (Active vs. Passive):
FTP connection mode (active or passive), determines how a data connection is established. In both cases, a client creates a TCP control connection to an FTP server command port 21. This is a standard outgoing connection, as with any other file transfer protocol (SFTP, SCP, WebDAV) or any other TCP client application (e.g. web browser). So, usually there are no problems when opening the control connection.
Where FTP protocol is more complicated comparing to the other file transfer protocols are file transfers. While the other protocols use the same connection for both session control and file (data) transfers, the FTP protocol uses a separate connection for the file transfers and directory listings.
In the active mode, the client starts listening on a random port for incoming data connections from the server (the client sends the FTP command PORT to inform the server on which port it is listening). Nowadays, it is typical that the client is behind a firewall (e.g. built-in Windows firewall) or NAT router (e.g. ADSL modem), unable to accept incoming TCP connections.
For this reason the passive mode was introduced and is mostly used nowadays. Using the passive mode is preferable because most of the complex configuration is done only once on the server side, by experienced administrator, rather than individually on a client side, by (possibly) inexperienced users.
In the passive mode, the client uses the control connection to send a PASV command to the server and then receives a server IP address and server port number from the server, which the client then uses to open a data connection to the server IP address and server port number received.
Network Configuration for Passive Mode
With the passive mode, most of the configuration burden is on the server side. The server administrator should setup the server as described below.
The firewall and NAT on the FTP server side have to be configured not only to allow/route the incoming connections on FTP port 21 but also a range of ports for the incoming data connections. Typically, the FTP server software has a configuration option to setup a range of the ports, the server will use. And the same range has to be opened/routed on the firewall/NAT.
When the FTP server is behind a NAT, it needs to know it's external IP address, so it can provide it to the client in a response to PASV command.
Network Configuration for Active Mode
With the active mode, most of the configuration burden is on the client side.
The firewall (e.g. Windows firewall) and NAT (e.g. ADSL modem routing rules) on the client side have to be configured to allow/route a range of ports for the incoming data connections. To open the ports in Windows, go to Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Firewall > Advanced Settings > Inbound Rules > New Rule. For routing the ports on the NAT (if any), refer to its documentation.
When there's NAT in your network, the FTP client needs to know its external IP address that the WinSCP needs to provide to the FTP server using PORT command. So that the server can correctly connect back to the client to open the data connection. Some FTP clients are capable of autodetecting the external IP address, some have to be manually configured.
Smart Firewalls/NATs
Some firewalls/NATs try to automatically open/close data ports by inspecting FTP control connection and/or translate the data connection IP addresses in control connection traffic.
With such a firewall/NAT, the above configuration is not necessary for a plain unencrypted FTP. But this cannot work with FTPS, as the control connection traffic is encrypted and the firewall/NAT cannot inspect nor modify it.