Hello,
I'm a small web hosting provider and I'm "ok"with Linux but not an expert. The hosting I'm doing is basically a side project. Well I've got a small problem that I don't know exactly how to fix.
I have several domains hosted on my machine and I'm running Apache Named Based Virtual Hosting. I've created a documentroot for each domain and set the admin for thas web site's domain to that directory. I then allow people to FTP in with their username and modify their web site.
The problem I'm having is that users are able to back up a directory in FTP and access other users directories and even download files but every attempt I've made of changing permissions has just made Apache give permission denied errors when you try to access one of the web sites. Apache runs as www-data.www-data on my machine, and I've created each user a "username.users"(users being the group)...I've heard this is bad but I've already done it. I can go and change that if its better, but I'm not certain. I was told that I should create them as "username.username" and that would prevent other users from being able to access other users home directories because they would all not belong to the same group anymore. However, if I do this, will this keep www-data.www-data from being able to access them as well? How can I Do this? I'm really lost.
Oh, and the other problem I've been having is that users will log in to their web site directory and make a new directory, and it doesn't have the correct permissions for Apache to access it. I have to modify its permissions to allow everyone access to read it in order for it work. This is a serious issue with me as I'm picking up more and more users and domains. I'm terrible with chmod. I won't even pretend to understand it. I've been using webmin to alter permissions on files because I just don't even want to try to comprehend chmod's complex looking set of instructions in the man page.
Could someone please help and post in EXTREME detail and in "newbie" terms. Once I understand, i'll be alright with this.
On a side note, I love Linux. I've learned a lot doing this project including working on a DNS server, the structures of zone files, setting up smtp and POP3, and my latest endevor was setting up an IRC Server with services support. I don't use webmin for everything, but I do use it for a lot of stuff. I've recently switched from Slackware to Debian, and I'm still adjusting.
Anyway, enough rambling. Thanks for any help anyone can give. It'll be much appreciated.
Bill Sargent
Station51
webmaster51@station51.net
(no i dont do web design, and no i didn't design my page, and yes its a front page template!
)
