Help a newbie with ftp
 

Ok decided since I use my laptops more then the desktop, I should install a ftp server on the desktop and us it for a catch all for myself and a few friends to store movies on.

I tried it with FC2 and did not like the stability of it

I now have mandrake 10.0 office up and running. I can use samba to allow access in but that limits me to just that home directory..

I can not figure out how to install/configure proftp. on this box. I have searched and have come up empty.

It is installed (i think) from the inital install. How do I configure it? I am using KDA for the desktop.

I already have the box set to a static ip, and port 21 directed to that box on the router...

Thank you all in advance..

Dennis

To install either proftpd or wuftpd just

urpmi proftp

You also really want to add the wizards and webmin to help you set up everything on your system.

Go to http://www.zebulon.org.uk and set up URPMI as indicated

then once done.


urpmi wizard

and

urpmi webmin

and let it install everything it needs.

Then you can configure your FTP server from the webmin interface and you'll also see some new entries in the Mandrake Control Center for configuring FTP services as well.

Your reference to samba indicates you may want to share over your local network only. If so, samba can easily be configured to host a central set of files open to everyone or some users on your lan.

If your intention is to make files readable and writeable over the internet, then this may help.

Consider the security risks of ftp variants. There are more secure systems, but I have not investigated them yet.
When I was testing my ftp server, I left it up for a while. Someone with a German isp address guessed a password, then uploaded and shared a few gigs of pirated movies.....

Use the 'configure your computer' function, system, services start the ftp service, it will work 'out of the box'.
Test it locally.
konqueror - ftp://127.0.0.1

IE works fine as a windows client ftp:192.168.0.xxx
select a valid user name for login, use your system password.

Then create a specific user that everyone will log in as. If you want to give write permission, choose an obscure name and a solid password. Create the user, make sure the permissions on the folder allow read and write, (if that is what you want). Make sure user is a member of the ftp group.
Uncomment the 'chroot' line so that users cannot get into your system files.

I configured ftp from the samples in the config file, on an older version of linux. Webmin makes it a lot easier.

With this working, you can set up a special directory somewhere in your file structure, but I rather like keeping things in one users directory - easier to control.

Stuart