gHacks technology news » secure ftp http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:24:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Home FTP Server http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/26/home-ftp-server/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/26/home-ftp-server/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:54:27 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/26/home-ftp-server/ FTP is one of those protocols that is largely ignored by the majority of today’s Internet users. Back in the early days of the Internet it was common to download drivers, patches and all sorts of files from ftp servers directly. Home FTP Server is a lightweight application for the Windows operating system that installs a ftp server on the computer system. The question for some readers might be about the use of a ftp server: You can use it to easily share files with friends in a private environment as it can be configured to only allow specific users to access the files on the computer system.

Home FTP Server is just one of many ftp server applications (read FTP Server Setup). It does come with a full set of features but it takes only a few clicks to have a basic ftp server up and running. The ftp server program uses a tabbed interface at the bottom for configuration and monitoring of the ftp server. The most important tab setup wise is the FTP Server tab which offers possibilities to add user accounts, specify directories, change settings of the ftp server and activate it in the end.

There are basically two ways users can connect to a ftp server by default. The first is an anonymous connection. This can be used by anyone and security minded administrators should disable that feature. The accessible directories and file rights can be defined for anonymous users in the settings. More important than anonymous users are member accounts. Each member account can be added for a single user or group of users who all share the same starting directory, access rights and restrictions on the ftp server.

home ftp server

It is for example possible to only allow the users to download files from the ftp server. The most secure setting is to create one user account for every user that should be able to connect to the ftp server. This can be problematic if you want to install an ftp server for dozens of users.

The settings manage every aspect of the ftp server from server and data port to Open SSL support, domain aliases and a web interface. The options of the Home Ftp Server application are quite extensive. Users can be banned from accessing the ftp server and the tool provides the ftp server administrator with the means to monitor files and users easily.

Home FTP Server is an easy to install and administrate ftp server for private usage. The administrative interface is a bit dusty but that’s not as important as the amount of options and settings available to the user. The ftp server application has a size of only 1 Megabyte and uses another two of computer memory while running minimized in the Windows System Tray.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/26/home-ftp-server/feed/ 5 Use WinSCP to securely copy files between two computers http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/09/use-winscp-to-securely-copy-files-between-two-computers/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/09/use-winscp-to-securely-copy-files-between-two-computers/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:00:12 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/09/use-winscp-to-securely-copy-files-between-two-computers/ A reader of my site asked which program I was using to transfer files between my local computer and my dedicated server. The question looks easy to answer at first glance but actually it is not that easy. I’m actually using two ways to connect to my dedicated server depending on the tasks at hand. I use Putty to connect to my dedicated server when I want to administrate it: create new virtual hosts, ftp accounts and the like. I do use WinSCP for all other tasks, mainly for opening a secure connection to my dedicated server which uses SSH.

I can then copy files from and to my dedicated server using this secure connection. I upload new websites this way or download mysql backups or other files that i want to store locally. Well, today version 4 of WinSCP was released as a beta. The main additions are ftp support (remember it supported SFTP before only) and SSH tunnel support. The later feature is not that important for me but the first is really nice.

The changelog for WinSCP 4.0 beta lists a lot of bug fixes and changes that would be to much to list here at my site. Just take a look at the changelog at the official site if this is really interesting for you.

What do you use to connect to a dedicated server ? Remember that I’m still using Windows mainly which limits the choice of programs that I could use.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/09/use-winscp-to-securely-copy-files-between-two-computers/feed/ 2