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Personal FTP Server...Whats involved??

S

SFVR6

Junior Member
Hey guys,

I have a home business with a DSL line.

I have a mac and PC networked together sharing the DSL line.

I want to have my own FTP server to share files and have a place for people to download.

What is involved? Software? Hardware?

Would I be able to host my own site or is that a completley different "can of worms"?

🙂
 
Well, you can download software to run an ftp server on a Windows platform, but I would recommend against that especially if you expect a fair amount of traffic. I would set up a dedicated computer to do it. It doesn't have to be all that fast (~500 Mhz would be fine). The more memory the better, but again if you don't expect huge amounts of traffic a lot of memory isn't needed. As far as OS, a linux distro is probably the easiest to setup. Mandrake or Redhat would be good places to start. If you want something a little more complicated, look into a BSD OS like FreeBSD. Redhat and Mandrake should both let you install wu-ftpd (a very popular ftp server) when you install the OS. I assume you're using a router, so you'll have to set it up to forward traffic on port 21 to your ftp server.
 
First off, what OS are you running on the PC (I assume some version of Windoze)?

Hardware: your PC should be fine(you might wanna dedicate a second box)

Software: don't know much about Win software as I'm running a Linux server, but I've heard good things about Serv-U (Shareware, you'll find it on Cnet.) Whatever you do, don't use IIS.

Other considerations:

Traffic: Check your ISP's TOS agreement, they may prohibit hosting sites depending on the plan you have. You can get away with it, but don't plan on having tons of users, as they'll notice all your upload traffic and figure you out.

Firewall/Router: I assume you're using one already, with a PC and Mac hooked to your DSL. Don't wanna leave all your ports open.

Other Security: Do you want anonymous access, or is this for selected users who'll use usernames/passwords.

Dynamic DNS service: Do you have a static IP or dynamic? Either way, a free dynamic DNS service ( example ) will assign your ip address a name (ex: yourname.dyndns.org), so your users won't have to remember your numeric IP.

Now I'm not the most experienced at this, I'm still learning myself, but this should get you started. Elaborate a little more, and you'll get more detailed help (ie: how many users, anon or not)

Hope it helps,

Mike
 
Or you could forget all about the paranoia or the mega tech needed to run with linux and just download something from a download page like this...set it up with a solid password like "ra987arof8" and people would access your FTP by entering you DSL IP number into their FTP client. KISS is the best policy without getting too lax on the simple steps you can take to secure your FTP site...[
 
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