<--I think this smilly fits me well!

Hello everyone,
My first post so I apologize if I have used the wrong forms area; but I am getting desperate! I am currently using RH9 with kernel 2.4.20-20.8. on a MSI Master-L MB using dual AMD-MP processors. The box serves as our home File/print/services Server.

***My Goal: I am trying to find a way to share read only access to family members that wish to download pictures of my new baby girl across the Internet from location /raid40/MyPictures/Hannah/ on my server. I do not wish anonymous access to the files because there are strange people on the Internet.

***My Attempt: I tried using vsFTPd services but I want my family to log in with username/password and just browse the files from their original location----> /raid40/MyPictures/Hannah/
The problem is that any user logging on is instantly sent to their /home/<user_name> directory. I tried creating a user called “family” and made their home directory=/raid40/MyPictures/Hannah/ but is automatically rejected and cannot log on. In fact, any account on the server MUST have their home directory set to /home/<user_name>/ or they cannot log on.

Is vsFTPd the right thing to use in this case? I have tried using Apache Web services and can get it working fine for web pages, but I cannot figure out how to secure the web page with a password nor can I make it so users can brows certain directories.
!!!---===/HELP\===---!!!
As frustrated as I am, it is still better then Windows2kServer from what I have seen!!!

.................. Anybody?
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(tumble-weed)
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Welcome to LQ.

If they only need ftp access then edit /etc/passwd and change their home directories. Then add the next 2 lines to vsftpd.conf:
chroot_local_user = yes
passwd_chroot_enable = yes

Then restart vsftpd if it is run in standalone mode.

An alternative to consider is running a web server and using some photogallery software to display the images.