HOWTO : Create a FTP server with user access (proftpd)

[frodon]

If you are not sure of your certificate password maybe it will be faster to recreate your certificate.
I never used webmin so i can't really help you about webmin related stuff.

[floz23]

Greetings everyone,

Decent how-to. I should note however, I needed to use the LATEST version of firezilla, in order to use the TLS compression. You may want to note that in the how-to.

But I have a question about a module that is not in the packaged version in the repos. I would really like to use the mod_shaper module, in order to limit the overall bandwidth usage of my crummy adsl connection. I looked at the "TransferRate RETR" control, but I realized that thats for a per connection basis, not to powerful at all.

Since I'm almost a total Linux n00b, could you give me an idea of how to recompile proftpd with the included mod_shaper module?

Much thanks to everyone, including the how-to's author!

-Adam

[frodon]

First are you sure it is not included ? Not loaded not necessarily mean not present. The list a modules you are loading when running proftpd is set in the /etc/proftpd/modules.conf file.
The command "proftpd -l" should return you the module list.

In addition TransferRate is not on a "connection basis" but on a command basis, for the moment i don't see the need to restrict the bandwidth other than for the RETR and STOR commands and maybe also the LIST command, other commands not being bandwidth eaters.

Will add a note about filezilla, i use the feisty repository version which Support for TLS encryption but i guess previous version don't, thanks for your feedback

[floz23]

Thanks frodon,

Yes, I'm pretty sure its not included. I check in the /usr/lib/proftpd directory, and its not listed.

Well, the reason why I want the mod_shaper is because i want to be able to set an upstream transfer rate in total. So if I have 60kb/s to spare, i want that entire 60kb/s to be allocated, no matter how many transfers are running.

As for the firezilla, I was referring to the windows version. I can't speak for the linux version because I don't use it, but version2 of firezilla just wouldn't connect to my TLS encrypted server! I was going nuts trying to figure it out, thinking it was a problem with the server configuration. Then I just decided to try the latest version (version3) of firezilla; it worked perfectly.

-Adam

First are you sure it is not included ? Not loaded not necessarily mean not present. The list a modules you are loading when running proftpd is set in the /etc/proftpd/modules.conf file.
The command "proftpd -l" should return you the module list.

In addition TransferRate is not on a "connection basis" but on a command basis, for the moment i don't see the need to restrict the bandwidth other than for the RETR and STOR commands and maybe also the LIST command, other commands not being bandwidth eaters.

Will add a note about filezilla, i use the feisty repository version which Support for TLS encryption but i guess previous version don't, thanks for your feedback

[wilberfan]

I've only been using Ubuntu for a year or so, and I've never tried setting up an FTP server, so this thread is invaluable...

I've stumbled through the HowTo, understanding probably half of it

I'm behind a router, and have tried to make those allowances in the proftpd.conf file.

When I try and connect using fireftp in Firefox, I can't connect, and don't get any useful information about why: "Unable to make a connection. Please try again."

Is there a log file, or...?

Where on Earth do I start looking to see what the problem is?

[appzattak]

thanks for the great tut. I have one prob though. I cannot get the proftptools to work, I think I did the .bashrc correct, can you let me know. when I run ProftpTools from the terminal it does nothing.

Here is my .bashrc file.

ProftpTools_dir=/home/steve/downloads/ProftpTools-v1.0.2
export ProftpTools_dir
fi

[appzattak]

nevermind, I fixed it, I had to remove that fi

[j3n0vacHiLd]

Hey, great tutorial there I got through it just find I'm just running into a problem now I can't seem to solve.

I have this ftp server setup just for local file transfer between windows/linux mostly. I can connect to the server, browse the files, etc.. but If I want to create a new folder or upload a file I get a "550: Permission Denied" error.. I have chmod my ftp folder to 777 and still unsure what the problem is. Anyone know what might be wrong?

ftp> put /home/daniel/hmm.txt
local: /home/daniel/hmm.txt remote: /home/daniel/hmm.txt
200 PORT command successful
550 /home/daniel/hmm.txt: Permission denied
ftp>

I have copy/paste the .conf file from the tutorial so unless there is a mistake I think that is fine.

Any help is appreciated, thanks!


EDIT: I just chmod all directories to 777 including the ftp directory and its working fine now :/ .. I just had to specify a remote path because it was trying to upload to the wrong place.

[b3dm4n]

Hi.
I'm a newbee to Linux world and Ubuntu is the first distro I tried. I want to make an ftp server, so I followed your steps literally for a start.
I manage to get almost everything going, but 1 thing I couldn't get it done is to make a symlink in the ftp-share directory to be accessable by the ftp user.

I want an ftpuser to access directory /home/ftp-share, /site/www, and /store/client
I already make ln -s command to make shortcut to www and client directory in ftp-share folder, but ftpuser cannot see them, what should I do?

[frodon]

Hi.
I'm a newbee to Linux world and Ubuntu is the first distro I tried. I want to make an ftp server, so I followed your steps literally for a start.
I manage to get almost everything going, but 1 thing I couldn't get it done is to make a symlink in the ftp-share directory to be accessable by the ftp user.

I want an ftpuser to access directory /home/ftp-share, /site/www, and /store/client
I already make ln -s command to make shortcut to www and client directory in ftp-share folder, but ftpuser cannot see them, what should I do?

All is explained in the tutorial, symlink are not allowed with the config i provided as they decrease seriously the security of your FTP server.
This is the exact purpose of the section Misc > Useful tricks to let you mount where you need the directory you wish to share.