7. FTP Server Configuration

 This wizard resembles the one used to configure a web server: It will let you specify whether FTP should be disabled, visible from the local network, from the external network, or both. Check the appropriate boxes as shown in Figure 9.7, “Defining FTP Server Visibility”.

Figure 9.7. Defining FTP Server Visibility

Defining FTP Server Visibility

[Warning] Warning

If your server network parameters are provided by DHCP the FTP server might not function properly if set to be visible from the Internet.

Figure 9.8. FTP Server Configuration

FTP Server Configuration

The basic FTP server configuration is shown in Figure 9.8, “FTP Server Configuration”. Besides the server's name you should provide an email address for the administrator so that he can receive alert messages.

Admin e-mail

Enter the address to which messages regarding the FTP server should be sent.

Permit root login

Check this box if you wish the root user to be allowed to login into the FTP server. If the FTP authentication is made in clear text, this option is not recommended.

Figure 9.9. FTP Server Options

FTP Server Options

You are then allowed to configure a few options (Figure 9.9, “FTP Server Options”):

FTP Port

The standard FTP port is 21, if you specify something else here FTP clients will have to be configured accordingly.

Chroot home user

By checking this option, users who log into the FTP server will be “boxed inside” their home directories.

Allow FTP resume

If your server is likely to host large files, it might be prudent to allow users to resume downloads.

Allow FXP

Check this option if you want your server to be able to exchange files with other FTP servers. Please note that the FXP protocol is not very secure.

To begin populating your FTP server, simply put the files in the /var/ftp/pub/ directory. You can connect to your FTP server as soon as the wizard is finished through the ftp://localhost/pub URL. Home directories are also accessible by default with local password authentication. If queen wants to access her home directory she has to use the ftp://queen@localhost URL.

[Note] Note

To enable anonymous login on the FTP server, you need to install the proftpd-anonymous package.