Previous Page | Next Page

  1. Agustin's Linux Manual
  2. Networks & Servers
  3. About the Author
  4. Table of Contents
  5. IP Addresses Networks and Subnets
  6. Network Classes
  7. IP Address in Decimal Notation
  8. Sub-netting
  9. Designing Subnets
  10. Allocating Subnets
  11. Defining Host Addresses
  12. Variable Length Subnet Mask
  13. Routing Protocols
  14. Classless Internet Domain Routing
  15. Servers - Chapter 9
  16. Apache Web Server
  17. Configuring Apache
  18. Uploading Web Pages
  19. Apache Overview
  20. MIMEMagic
  21. DNS Servers
  22. Welcome to Webmin
  23. Creating the Master Domain
  24. Adding the Reverse Zone
  25. Querying the DNS server
  26. Adding Virtual Domain to DNS Server
  27. Reverse Zone for Virtual Zone
  28. Binding IP Address for Virtual Domain
  29. Virtual Web Hosting
  30. DNS Security Options
  31. FTP Server
  32. Securing the FTP Server
  33. Email Server
  34. Postfix Configuration
  35. Dealing with Identical Users
  36. Configuring Email Clients
  37. Configuring Outlook
  38. Samba Server
  39. Configuring SAMBA Server
  40. The smb.conf File
  41. smb.conf Analysis
  42. Adding Users to Samba

FTP Server


(File Transfer Protocol)

Now that you have the DNS and the Web Server up and running, you probably want to know how to upload your pages remotely to the web server. Well first of all, you need an FTP server to connect to; second, you need an FTP client to talk to the FTP server.

Linux comes with both server and client. If you need a client for windows to connect to your web server, Ipswitch.com has a free educational version at their website, or you can search download.com for other free ones.

If FTP server was installed during Linux installation, you should have it listed in the services list as proftpd (wu-ftpd in red hat). You can set it to start automatically at boot time or you can start it whenever you need it.

To start the service manually:

[root@server2 root]# service proftpd start

To restart the service:

[root@server2 root]# service proftpd restart

To stop the service: [root@server2 root]# service proftpd stop

Once the server is running, your can connect to it with a client, it should respond.

The following figure is an FTP client. All you need is the username and the password to connect to the server.

For the host name you can use the domain name or the IP address, when your user name and password are verified, you will be dropped in your home directory

Session Properties
Fig 9.34

You can browse to the correct directory /var/www/html, and if you have the correct permission, you should be able to write and delete files in the html directory.

Connecting like this is the default configuration, known as per user; which means that basically any account in the system can login and by default will have permission in the user's home directory.

Another option is set up an anonymous FTP server. This means that anyone, anywhere can access the server; but due to security risks, I don't think you have to run an anonymous server. If you do, make sure anonymous users have access to certain areas only.

My intention in this section is to create a reliable semi-secure FTP server, remember that more security can be added with firewalls.