Hey, I need some serious help. I have Mandrake Linux 10.1 and I am running it as a web server/file server.

I have apache running and I use it to store files on my LAN. I am constructing a website that I hope will allow me to access my files on my server anywhere on the web. I am trying to figure out the best way to do this and at the moment I think that the best way is possibly to use an FTP server application.

I am runnning samba so that my server can interface with my Windows XP pro machines fairly seamlessly.

I need to know two things:

a) For this kind of task is FTP the best solution or is there a better way of sharing files over the net.

b) I currently am attempting to use proFTPd but with little success. I was wondering if anybody knew of a really easy basic setup guide that I can use, or on the flip side I have a user account that I store the files on my lan on, I am pretty sure I can "jail" users into that folder but I have one problem. I dont want the ftp users to log-on using that account. I would prefer that they used a different account set up by me but I still wish to jail them to the file folder of the original user from a different user. I hope that made sense.

I hope someone can help as I am pulling my hair out with this. I am a complete linux noob and I know it so u dnt need to tell me!!! That doesnt mean I expect the solution to be easy!!!
lol

ANY HELP GREATFULL!!!!!!! MANY THANKS!!!!

I do not think ftp is the best way to do it.

1) First of all, it is for your own use. So you may have some sensitive data and you may want a better security. In this regard, ftp is not very secure.

2) If you do not require the remote access as seamless as your LAN access to your samba share, then you can consider scp (secure copy). It is part of the ssh suite. Scp is available in most linux distro and is available to download for WinXp ...

3) if you want a higher interactiveness than scp then you can consider webdav ( http://www.webdav.org/)

you might look into using Waste.
http://waste.sourceforge.net/