04 Try it yourself Interactive

Watch the router decide which mode works

One fixed scene: an FTP client, a NAT router in front of it, and a server at 203.0.113.10. Both modes start identically, with the client opening the control connection to port 21 and logging in, then they diverge on one question. Both connections carry an explicit arrow for the direction they were opened in — right for a client dialling out, left for a server dialling in, dotted while nothing has been dialled yet — because direction is the entire teaching payload here. Switch the scene to a client on a public address and run active mode again: it works, which is the honest reason active mode was fine for a decade and then quietly stopped being. Nothing plays on its own — Next, Back and Reset, or the arrow keys.

Active mode · client behind NAT
nothing opened yet
Client 192.168.1.7 behind a router at 198.51.100.4. Server 203.0.113.10. Transferring report.csv, 4096 bytes.
Press Next to begin. Each press opens, uses or drops one connection.


      
Connections open0
Data connectionnone
NAT entries0
Transfernot started
step 0 / 0