I seem to be having trouble setting up a/any ftp client on my nix box. I dont know sh*t about setting this up I need a serious noob walk through this one! please help!

ftp client? or server?

Most distros install some sort of ftp client by default. Have you tried typing ftp,ncftp, or gftp?

look under /slakware/n1 on your slackware cdrom. there is ncftp.tgz

Im actually trying to uinstall both, but my main influence is ion the server. I just need to know how to set it up, (were to find it, plus install it) and how to use it( set up a way to ftp form anywere, basically and ftp server). If someone could help me with this... That would be awsome!

I have never done one in linux but if you search for somehting called proftp and you will get many hits on that one. Also you could search for ftp server on this site and find numerous listings.

Ok... I got the PFTPD package... and untared it. Now all i need to know is how install it. I try to run the "INSTALL" and it says something like "blahblah file not found" then I read in the README file (yes who'da thought!) that I need to some how compile the actual Install file and then run it but i dont know how to do that and the readme file is a bite hazy on teh subject. Im rippen my hair out on this one guys.... I need help... help that a retarted 3 yr old who cant read and doesnt talk could understand. ( now thats NOOB for yah!)

Usually the INSTALL file would be a text file explaining how to install it. But some people like to put the installation instructions in the README file instead.
Anyways the standard way to install is to run the following commands:

./configure
make
su -
# enter root password
make install

After that you can start configuring the server. Proftpd has a file called /etc/proftpd.conf which it uses. There is very extensive documentation at www.proftpd.org explaining that.

lol... I dont really need to do this.. I juxt remembered that Slackware automatically sets up pftp when installing the OS. So, now all I need to know is how to use it... basic commands would be nice, and any way to setup the server deamon.

anyoen know how to do that?

ok... I got the ftp deamon up, I think. I type ftp at the prompt and I get the ftp prompt of : ftp> There I type open local host and I get a "service not available remote server has closed connection" message. What does it mean?

Hello bripage,

Today I just finished setting up ftp, client and server, in RH 7.1.
I used wu-ftpd. My install was via rpm in RedHat.

I would suggest you do some reading. My resources were:
RedHat Admin Handbook - M. J. Kabir, chap 10
Linux Admin - Begin Guide - S. Shah, chap 13
man pages for ftpaccess

I know this is RedHat and you're on Slack, but if you have
some guidelines and the man pages for what Slack uses,
you can figure it out. The RH install included a starter
version of /etc/ftpaccess and I went from there.
Config Rule 1: Make one change at a time and see
what that does.

Open it up at first and then add more restrictive commands
to /etc/ftpaccess to improve security.

You may have to add a user or two and a new group if you
want a reasonably secure config. The man pages for ftpaccess
are big but you only need a handful of commands to get it
working. Lock it down later.

Be aware of file and directory permissions.

Also take a look at scp in the ssh suite.

Tom

There's really nothing to the client side... you usually have one if not several GUI ftp clients with the system, as well as the command line version (which I believe you've already found ).

The server can be a bit tricky.

If you believe that it's already installed, check to see if you have a daemon running by typing "ps -ef | grep ftp". That will give you a list of all the ftp processes on your system. If you don't find one, don't panic... the ftp server processes are usually started by a program called inetd or xinetd. Run "ps -ef | grep inetd" to make sure yours is running. We'll assume that it is. Now you need to check your inetd/xinetd configuration to make sure it's setup to handle the ftp server. if you are running inetd, there's a file called /etc/inetd.conf which should have a line starting with "ftp" in it. If you are running xinetd, there's a file in /etc/xinetd.d which should hold the configuration. Unfortunately, this file could be named anything. Look for one with the word "ftp" in the name. When you find it, look in that file to make sure "disable = yes" isn't listed. If so, change it to "disable = no".

That should get you going. If that doesn't work, we'll help you further.

Im not really sure.... In my inetd.conf file I see an uncommented line (no #) saying:

ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd proftpd



what is this? Is this right... or do I need to change it?

No that is correct.

I just installed it on my laptop, just to see how it runs.
install from cd:
/slakware/n1/proftpd.tgz

installpkg proftpd.tgz

make sure the line you wrote is uncommented in /etc/inetd.conf.

reboot

try to connect as a normal user, not as root

i still cant tell if I have teh actual deamon running ... and if it is, i dont know how to cinfig it so that I can have people connect to it.

Try "ftp localhost" and see if it prompts you to login. If so, it's working.