Set up a PC as a server for receiving files from outside

NFI · 07-02-2009, 05:02 AM

Hi, thanks very much for all the help I've received on my first post, it's been very helpful.

Now, I've been asked if I can set up a PC -

Intel Quad Core 2.93Ghz with 2 x 1TB HDD in RAID disk mirroring mode, and 8GB RAM

and have external customers be able to login to it to "upload" large files to it - large as in around 200-500MB compressed.

I've read up on creating a file server using Ubuntu

, I install a LAMP installation etc thinking this is the right way to go. Am I on the right track?

Any way I do all this and end up with a login screen, so I put my username and password in and it logs in. Then what do I do? What info do I need to set up the Windows based "clients".

Thanks again for any help anyone can give - and advice on stuff like which version of Ubuntu should I use? The logical one to me was Ubuntu 64 bit server, but from what I've read the desktop version does all the same things, just with a more user friendly interface. I'm looking for the quickest way at the moment to sort this problem out, so I can go more in depth when my skill levels with Ubuntu/Linux increases.

EDIT: Sorry, I left out a VERY important piece of the puzzle. We have Bigpond Wireless broadband which has a DYNAMIC DNS. Obviously, I'm going to need a STATIC IP, which Bigpond cannot provide. Is there another way around this?

fatra2 · 07-02-2009, 05:19 AM

Hi there,

Why don't you grant ssh access. One very secure way of transferring files, without any size limitation.

Otherwise, if you don't want to give full write on the machine, why don't you setup an FTP server. Great way of transferring files, in raw data. Therefore, you would have the fastest transfer rate possible. Security wise, I never had any problem with FTP servers.

Cheers

NFI · 07-02-2009, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatra2

Hi there,

Why don't you grant ssh access. One very secure way of transferring files, without any size limitation.

Otherwise, if you don't want to give full write on the machine, why don't you setup an FTP server. Great way of transferring files, in raw data. Therefore, you would have the fastest transfer rate possible. Security wise, I never had any problem with FTP servers.

Cheers

Sorry, I left out a VERY important piece of the puzzle. We have Bigpond Wireless broadband which has a DYNAMIC DNS. Obviously, I'm going to need a STATIC IP, which Bigpond cannot provide.

Very sorry about leaving that out. I'll put it in my original post now.

Wim Sturkenboom · 07-02-2009, 05:54 AM

Your on the wrong track

FTP and similar tools is the way to do it; no need for LAMP. FTPs (as supported by e.g. vsftpd) or sFTP (part of ssh) provide secure communication; I prefer FTPs.

Jail the users to their home directory from an FTP perspective.
They do not need to be able to login with regular accounts as they only have to upload so block normal logins by giving them a shell like /bin/false (not sure what will be available on the distro of your choice).

If your provider can not give you a static IP address, change providers. If that's not possible, look at services like dyndns.

NFI · 07-02-2009, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wim Sturkenboom

Your on the wrong track

FTP and similar tools is the way to do it; no need for LAMP. FTPs (as supported by e.g. vsftpd) or sFTP (part of ssh) provide secure communication; I prefer FTPs.

Jail the users to their home directory from an FTP perspective.
They do not need to be able to login with regular accounts as they only have to upload so block normal logins by giving them a shell like /bin/false (not sure what will be available on the distro of your choice).

If your provider can not give you a static IP address, change providers. If that's not possible, look at services like dyndns.

Thanks Wim, I usually DO tend to look at the hard way first...

jdkaye · 07-02-2009, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NFI

Sorry, I left out a VERY important piece of the puzzle. We have Bigpond Wireless broadband which has a DYNAMIC DNS. Obviously, I'm going to need a STATIC IP, which Bigpond cannot provide.

Very sorry about leaving that out. I'll put it in my original post now.

I got around that problem by using a dynamic dns server (some of them like the one I'll mention are free as in beer).
http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/
I wrote a script that checks my router's ip address hourly and compares it with the stored value of the ip, if the values are different then I send the new ip to dyndns.

The www.whatismyip.com provides a convenient command that you can embed in your script for this purpose.

It works like a charm at in the worst case I'm out of touch with my server for 1 hour. I can post the script if you would find it useful.
Cheers,
jdk

NFI · 07-02-2009, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

I got around that problem by using a dynamic dns server (some of them like the one I'll mention are free as in beer).
http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/
I wrote a script that check my router's ip address hourly and compares it with the stored value of the ip, if the values are different then I send the new ip to dyndns.

The www.whatismyip.com provides a convenient command that you can embed in your script for this purpose.

It works like a charm at in the worst case I'm out of touch with my server for 1 hour. I can post the script if you would find it useful.
Cheers,
jdk

Mate, that sounds just like the thing I'm looking for. As I said in my initial post on this site, I don't mind doing the work researching, but if you could post the script or email it to me, that'd be awesome, as it would not only cut down on some research I'd have to do, but would give me some further reference material to learn from in the shorter term. As I have been wondering how if I used something like dyndns etc how I'd update the ip info (I'm familiar with whatismyip.com though). Thanks!

jdkaye · 07-02-2009, 07:47 AM

Sure thing NFI. Here it is:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
tmpfile="/tmp/check_ext_ip"
NEW_EXT_IP=`wget www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp -O - -o /dev/null`
if [[ ! -r $tmpfile || ${NEW_EXT_IP} != `cat $tmpfile` ]] ; then
    # replace the next line with the correct ddclient invocation
    /etc/init.d/ddclient
    echo -n $NEW_EXT_IP > $tmpfile
fi
exit 0

As you can see you'll need to install ddclient. You'll need to place this script in /etc/cron.hourly if you want it run hourly and you'll have to configure the ddclient for your particular site and dyndns server.
Cheers,
jdk

NFI · 07-02-2009, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdkaye

Sure thing NFI. Here it is:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
tmpfile="/tmp/check_ext_ip"
NEW_EXT_IP=`wget www.whatismyip.com/automation/n09230945.asp -O - -o /dev/null`
if [[ ! -r $tmpfile || ${NEW_EXT_IP} != `cat $tmpfile` ]] ; then
    # replace the next line with the correct ddclient invocation
    /etc/init.d/ddclient
    echo -n $NEW_EXT_IP > $tmpfile
fi
exit 0

As you can see you'll need to install ddclient. You'll need to place this script in /etc/cron.hourly if you want it run hourly and you'll have to configure the ddclient for your particular site and dyndns server.
Cheers,
jdk

Thank you very very much jdk!

jdkaye · 07-02-2009, 11:28 PM

My pleasure. Let us know if you got it to work ok.
cheers,
jdk

vap16oct1984 · 08-15-2009, 07:04 AM

really great !!! nice job done jdkaye