An error occured trying to enumerate the contents of folder ''. Could not find a Web server at 'xx.xx.xx.xx' on port 21. Visual Studio Publish Problem.

Problem

You get the following error messages when you try to publish your website to the web server with FTP.

        Error: An error occured trying to enumerate the contents of folder ''. 
        Could not find a Web server at 'xx.xx.xx.xx' on port 21. 
        Please check to make sure that the Web server name is valid and your proxy settings are set correctly. 
        If you are sure that everything is correct, the Web server may be temporarily out of service.
    

Solution

Our web server is firewall protected. We only opened TCP port 21 and 20. You must use active transfer mode in FTP client. Microsoft has confirmed that it is generally by-design that you cannot publish to a server using ftp with a firewall in active mode. Please see Unable to publish website to FTP server that doesn't allow passive mode

Please use FrontPage Extensions to publish your website instead of FTP. You can enable FrontPage Extensions at Helm Control Panel > My Domains > yourdomain.com > FrontPage Extensions.

Other Resources

• Unable to publish website to FTP server that doesn't allow passive mode