VS 2013 FTP Connect to Website, Can not open file

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VS 2013 FTP Connect to Website, Can not open file

DMoody007 0

I am using Visual Studio 2013 (aware eol). I do File, Open Website, then FTP Website. I use the IP Address for server and a port. Has worked flawlessly until I recently dumped my Spectrum Router and replaced it with a Asus Router that has a built in firewall. Visual Studio will open the website and display a list of pages in the Solution Explorer. If I try to open a page into the designer/viewer, it fails with a message - "Unable to get file {file name} from the Web server".

Things I tried:

I can open the files outside of Visual Studio using browser and/or explorer in SMB and FTP. So I don't think I rights issue.
For some reason I can not explain, there are three files in the root of the solution. Web.config, a start page (default.aspx), and an html page. I can open these without issue in Visual Studio. Anything in a folder from the root, I can not.
I disabled the firewall on the Asus Router and no change
I looked up ports used by Visual Studio and added to port forwarding as suggested by various sources without success.

I am thinking the Asus is somehow blocking but I can not figure out how. Hoping someone here can maybe explain how VS, using my connection method tries to connect and what other ports or requirements might be needed so I can try to engage Asus further and resolve this. Any assistance would be appreciated.

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Answer 1

Bhawesh Kumar 75

I am not sure if this is going to be a solution but just adding some thoughts. ASUS router's NAT implementation may be blocking passive FTP data connections required by VS 2013 for subdirectory file access. You can perform following actions to debug if things work by this: -

Disable ASUS router firewall temporarily
Configure port forwarding for FTP ports (21, 20, 80, 443)
Force active FTP mode in Visual Studio registry
Consider upgrading to newer Visual Studio version

For Immediate Testing

Test with FileZilla FTP client first
Verify HTTP access to files via browser
Check if root files work but folders don't

DMoody007 0 Reputation points

2025-08-04T01:47:22.3033333+00:00

Thank you for your response.

FileZilla was not something I thought about. I installed it and I was able to connect, view files, open them, edit them and save back to the server through FileZilla only and a text editor.

In Visual Studio, I am able to right click on an ASPX page, right click and open in Browser. I can also, open the pages directly from a browser outside of Visual Studio.

As stated before, I disabled the firewall in the Asus Router without success. Also stated root files work but not folder/files.

As an additional test, I installed a Wifi dongle and connected my desktop to a 5G Cell Hotspot. This bypassed the Asus Router. I was able to connect via FTP and open and edit all the files in Visual Studio. So now fully convinced the Asus Router is blocking.

I have not done anything with NAT. It is enabled on the router. I will try testing NAT and see if it has an effect. Thanks for that suggestion.

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VS 2013 FTP Connect to Website, Can not open file

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