Im not sure if this should be in Server Software or Software in general so I put it in software general.

I have a few questions about configuring VSFTPD. (I am using CentOS 6.3)

1. When I try logging in to my FTP server (using ftp localhost on terminal or ftp://localhost in firefox) I get a weird error message saying that I can't change directories, I looked online and disabled SELinux and restarded my PC and it works, however I feel that this is a security risk and I want SELinux turned on but still have VSFTP working, is this possible?

2. When I got VSFTPD working, I noticed that when I logged in I started in my /home directory but I could navigate higher than that, even to the root folder. I want to make it so each user (ex. sam, bob, joe) can only navigate in there /home folder (/home/sam, /home/bob) and nowhere else.

(I read online also and it said something about #chroot_local_user=YES which is set to "YES" but it doesn't lock users to their home directory)

(OPTIONAL/LEAST IMPORTANT) 3. Is there a way to make VSFTPD public rather than just private/lan use? If you don't know what I mean, I am talking about Port forwarding (21) and allowing other people to connect to my FTP externally by typing in my external IP address.

Have you removed comment sign # from attribute chroot_local_user=YES ?
When you change your vsftpd.conf, it is necessary to restart your vsftpd server.

To access ftp publicly, you should have static IP and port 21 should be opened on it so user outside LAN can access your system.
But remember it increases security risk so be careful before make it public.

Check the status of boolean with the following command

# getsebool -a | grep ftp

the output may be as below
***
allow_ftpd_anon_write –> off
allow_ftpd_full_access –> off
allow_ftpd_use_cifs –> off
allow_ftpd_use_nfs –> off
allow_tftp_anon_write –> off[COLOR="Red"]
ftp_home_dir –> off
ftpd_disable_trans –> off
ftpd_is_daemon –> on
httpd_enable_ftp_server –> off
tftpd_disable_trans –> off
***

The highlighted line should be set to ON, in order to access their own home directory