Reliable ftp server for windows. Installing an FTP server and configuring it (using the FileZilla Server program as an example). Methods for connecting to an FTP server. Setting up Windows Firewall
Most often, users use email or Skype to exchange small files online. However, when you need to send an archive of photographs or a film several gigabytes in size, these services cannot be used. Public file sharing also creates some difficulties, for example, waiting for a timer and limiting the speed. The best solution in this case is to create your own FTP server.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a protocol for transferring information on the Internet and local computer networks. This is a program that makes a remote connection to a dedicated folder for viewing and sharing files, including large ones. Data exchange is possible from a computer to a remote server and between other FTP servers.
Data is transmitted without traffic encryption, so attackers can easily gain access to logins and passwords. For secure file transfer, it is recommended to use a TLS-protected protocol - FTPS, which encrypts data.
Your own FTP server has certain advantages:
- allows you to manage the server and its resources;
- provide users with different access rights;
- it does not require a static IP address.
- no speed limits;
- lack of payment to the hoster for hosting it;
The software is selected according to the complexity of the access. To create an FTP server for private use with minimal settings, free software packages are quite suitable.
Microsoft has added Internet Information Services (IIS) to Windows 7, which allows users to share access to a folder from the network. Therefore, to create an FTP server for Windows 7, you do not need to install any additional software.
Installing an FTP server
Some standard features that are not used very often are disabled by default in Windows 7. Therefore, in order to activate them, you need to follow a number of steps.
To create an FTP server on Windows 7 you need to:
- Click “Start” and open the “Control Panel” section. For ease of viewing, you can select the “Small icons” mode.
- Go to the "Programs and Features" section and select "Turn Windows features on or off."
- In the list of the menu that opens, you need to select the components that should be activated by checking the box next to them. This is the “FTP Server” folder, there are two items in it: “FTP Extensibility” and “FTP Service”, as well as the “Website Management Tools” folder, and in it is the “IIS Management Console”. To start, click OK.
Setting up an FTP server
- Now you need to go through “Start” to “Control Panel” again.
- Find the “Administration” section and open “IIS Services Manager” in this section.
- Go to the “Sites” tab, right-click on the name, select “Add FTP sites” from the list.
- In the new window you need to specify the name of the future FTP server and the path to the directory with its data. You can proceed to the next configuration step by clicking the “Next” button.
- Now the server parameters are set. In the IP address field, select the one you need from the list. You can bind it to a specific address or make extended access by selecting “All free”. In this case, the standard port 21 should be checked. If you plan to constantly use the FTP server, then you should check the “Launch FTP site automatically” checkbox. Select the “No SSL” option; you can enable it later if necessary. Click “Next” again.
- In a new window, the authorization type is specified. In the “Authentication” item, you can allow login for regular or anonymous users. Here you can configure rights for them. Click "Done".
After the installation is complete, a new FTP server will appear in the “Sites” section.
Setting up Windows Firewall
Now it is imperative to configure the Windows Firewall to open ports and allow services to function.
Go back to Control Panel, then Windows Firewall. Find the "Advanced Settings" section.
In it, select “Rules for incoming connections”. It is recommended to set them to passive mode. To do this, right-click and enable the “FTP Server Passive” and “FTP Server (incoming traffic)” rules. In the same way, for outgoing connections, enable the “FTP-Server” rule in the appropriate section.
Connecting users
In order for users to access the server, they must be connected.
- In the “Control Panel” tab, open the “Administration” folder.
Administration section
- Find the Computer Management section, then go to the Local Users folder. Right-click on the “Groups” line and select the “Create Group” function. In the new window, specify the name and short description of the group and click “Create”.
- Now you can connect users to the created group. In the “Local Users” folder, right-click on the “Users” line and select “New” from the menu list. Fill in the fields by entering your name and password, and here you should check the prohibition on changing the password checkbox.
- To connect a user, right-click on his account and select “Properties” from the menu list, then the “Group Membership” tab and the “Add” button. Find the created group, add and click OK. This procedure must be performed for all server users.
- The next step is to determine the access rights of group users to the working directory. To do this, go to the “Site” directory, right-click on the name and open “Properties”. Next - the “Security” tab, in the “Change” item, specify the name of the group and click OK. Then you need to configure user rights.
- Enter the “IIS Services Manager”, right-click on the line “FTP Authorization Rules”, add an allowing rule. You can allow users to write and delete data, or you can only read.
Server installation and configuration is complete. However, now you need to know how to log into the FTP server.
Standard Windows features make this easy. Just open the “My Computer” folder, then specify the path to the server in the address bar.
Another way is to create a shortcut for connecting to FTP on your computer desktop.
To do this, open the “Control Panel”, right-click the “Network Neighborhood” section. In tasks, select “Add a new element to the network environment,” then click on “Select another network location” and “Next.” Now a shortcut will appear in the “Network Location” section, which you just need to drag and drop onto your desktop.
As you can see, it is useful to know how to set up an FTP server to make data exchange between users convenient and without restrictions.
Usually, when you search for “Setting up FTP in Windows Server 2008 or 2012,” detailed guides pop up on how to deploy this server using IIS (Internet Information Services - a feature-rich Web server based on and built into Windows). However, there are special cases when raising IIS because of one feature is not entirely logical.
In my case, apache was already installed on the server and certain features were installed that use apache, and it became necessary to set up a simple FTP server for data exchange. Raising IIS for this one feature and then disabling all services and freeing ports to avoid a conflict with apache - I didn’t see much sense. Therefore, it was decided to install FTP, which does not load the system and knows its job very well - FileZilla Server.
I ask you not to be immediately alarmed by his English-speaking nature. The settings are quite simple, and if you do everything according to the instructions below, then you won’t have any problems.
Installing FileZilla Server
Download the distribution kit from the manufacturer’s website or from our website. Let's launch and go in order:
We agree to the license, click I agree
Here you can leave everything as is. Source Code may only be of interest to you if you are a programmer. If you are a programmer, then you are unlikely to need this article, so without further ado, click Next and move on to the next stage.
Select the installation path by clicking a button Browse, or leave everything as it is and move on - Next.
Here we set the operating mode of our server and the port on which we will connect to administer the server. If this is a server that will be used constantly, I recommend leaving everything here as it is. If it happens occasionally, you can choose the second option, but then you will have to start the service manually, and in the third case, be sure to log in via console, otherwise it will not work.
Click Next.
The following options are offered here:
Launching the administrative interface when logging into Windows as any user
Launching the administrative interface when logging in only by the current user (under whom the installation is being carried out)
Manual launch
You can choose as you wish. It’s not interesting for me to see his face every time I start, so I choose the third option.
Click Next.
The installation process has begun.
If during the installation process you did not change the port for entering the administrative module, then leave everything as it is and click Connect.
Here he tells who he is and warns in red that the server is located behind the router, so you need to configure Passive Mode and do port forwarding on the router.
He also says that an encrypted connection is not possible until we enable FTP over TLS. This is so that no one can intercept the traffic. It is up to you to choose whether to activate this feature or not. I don’t see any particular need for a home server.
Click on the Settings icon (the third one) and start the settings.
Chapter General settings- here you can leave everything as it is.
If you're interested, I'll explain what this means:
Listenontheseports: 21- what port the ftp server will listen to. By default, this is port 21. You can leave it like this if this is the only FTP server on this computer. If there is already one, then it is better to change the port.
Max.numberofusers: 0- the number of users who can simultaneously connect to the server. 0 is an unlimited number of users, otherwise the number you specify.
Numberofthreads: 2- the maximum number of threads that the server is allowed to use. The default is the number of processor cores/threads. If for some reason you want to limit CPU usage, you can reduce this value.
Timeoutsettings- in this section we define timeouts for the connection, for the download and how long the user will be logged in. I don't see any point in changing.
IN Passive mode settings we leave everything as it is. If necessary, you can set an external IP in the section Use the following IP, but without port forwarding on the router nothing will work.
AdminInterfacesettings- here you can set a white list of IP addresses from which you are allowed to connect to the administrative interface, as well as determine which IP addresses the server listens to for connection (if there are several network adapters).
The most important setting here is the Change admin password checkbox. The Admin user is not a client of the FTP server, so if you leave it without a password, no one will connect to FTP under it. But if in doubt, it is better to set this password. This is exactly the password that will need to be entered when logging into the administrative interface. We configure users in a completely different dialogue.
Here you can set the ability to maintain Logs - a log that monitors the operation of the server. This may be useful if there are some problems with the server.
If it is planned that a large number of people will use the server, then it makes sense to add speed limits to one download stream, so that it does not happen that one person will take up the entire channel, and the rest will wait and hope. This can be done in the section Speed Limits. The upper window is the download speed, the lower window is the upload speed.
The FTP over TLS settings section is exactly the section where you can enable a secure connection to the server and specify an existing file in the settings, or generate a certificate. This is optional.
Autoban- this is a very useful section that protects your server from brute forcers. If you check the box Enableautomaticbans, then after a certain number of attempts (default 10), the user trying out passwords will be blocked for a certain number of hours (default 1, can be set up to 999 hours)
Click OK and move on to setting up users, folders and access rights.
Click on the fourth icon.
Here we click Add and we see the following window:
We type, for example, User and press OK.
You can check the boxes here Enable account to allow the user to the server and Password to give the user a password. Otherwise, the user will be able to connect as anonymous without a password.
Here we set a list of folders to which this user can have access, and also determine what exactly he can do with these folders and the files located in them.
Click Add and add folders. Then we check the boxes for what the user can do with these folders.
For those who are not at all strong in English, I translate:
Files:
Read - reading
Write - record
Delete - deletion
Append - change
Directories (folders):
Create - creation
Delete - deletion
List - view a list of folders
+ Subdirs - has the right to view subfolders
I selected the folder and set full rights to everything for the User user.
Limits can be set for each specific user. We do not impose restrictions on the privileged; we can individually assign permissions to everyone else.
We don’t change anything here either, but we can set a white list of IP addresses (top text box) from which a certain user can log in. Or a black list of addresses (lower text box) from which these users should not be allowed.
Click OK and let's start testing!
Just one small detail. If you have the built-in Windows Firewall enabled, then most likely port 21 is closed for security reasons. FileZilla doesn't open this port automatically, so let's go to Start>Control Panel>Firewall
Click Create a rule...
Choose Customizable and press Further
Click Browse and select the server location. In my case it is “C:\Program Files\FileZilla Server\FileZilla Server.exe”.
Here we select Protocol type: TC.P., the rest is unchanged, click Further
Choose Allow connections and press Further
You don’t have to change anything here, click Further
Here we enter in the paragraph Name: some name, for example, like mine - FTP-TCP and press Ready.
Now we do the same thing, only at the point where you need to select a protocol, select UDP.
Choose any name, for example, FTP-UDP.
That's it, click Ready.
That's it, we explained to the Firewall that packets should be allowed through, now all that remains is to forward 21 ports and set the client to passive mode.
Windows operating system users often wonder what an FTP server is and how to set it up? If you are also interested in installing and configuring an FTP server on Windows 10, then you have come to the right place. In this topic, we will take a detailed look at the process of setting up an FTP server.
What is an FTP server for?
FTP is a network file transfer protocol that is based on the client-server principle. An FTP server is a kind of file storage on the Internet, that is, an ordinary PC with the Windows 7 or higher operating system installed, which has several hard drives and can accommodate many files from different users. On such a computer there is always a program installed, for example – FileZilla Server. Any user to whom the administrator has granted access can access certain files through this program. After connecting to the FTP server, the user can upload any files to it (movies, music, photos, documents, etc.) and also download stored materials.
How to set up an FTP server on Windows 10?
As a software implementation of an FTP server, the article will present the FileZilla Server program, which will be installed on a machine with Windows 7 (for Windows 10 the step-by-step steps will be identical).
IMPORTANT! To set up an FTP server, you need to download FileZilla Server and FileZilla Client. In this case, we install the server file on Windows 7, which will serve as a server, and install the client version of the program on Windows 10, from which we will access it. The principle of installing the client program is standard.
Let's look at the installation principle of FileZilla Server. Download and run the program on your PC. We accept the terms of the license agreement.
Leave all the marks as on the screenshot.
Select a location to unpack the program files.
We also do not change the port number.
Click “Install”.
After installing the software, a small window will appear in which you need to enter the local address of the FTP server and click OK. We don't touch the port.
After entering this data, it is worth making several settings. Initially, click “Edit”, “Users”.
A small window will appear. Select the “General” branch and click “Add” (add user).
Set a name for the user.
Next to the “Password” item, check the box and enter the new user’s password.
Specify the previously created folder “FTP01”.
Select the added folder and specify access rights for it:
- Read – read only;
- Write – record;
- Delete – deletion;
- Append – changes files in this folder.
After selecting access rights, click “Ok”.
Now, to determine the IP address, you should enter the “ipconfig” command in the command line with Administrator rights.
Now we switch to Windows 10 and install the Client. Initially, we accept the terms of the license agreement.
Select “Open for me only.” The user you created earlier will be indicated in parentheses.
Select a folder to unpack program files.
We start the installation of the program.
Let's connect to the FTP server via the command line. Let's launch the console. Enter the command “ftp”, and then enter “open 192.168.1.4”, where “192.168.1.4” is the IP address of the FTP server. Specify the username and enter the password. The password is not displayed when entered. “Logged on” means that we have logged into the FTP server.
Let's create the folder “My_Backup_win10” on the FTP server by entering the command “mkdir My_Backup_win10”. You can view a list of folders using the “is” command.
Thus, we connect to the FTP server using the command line. However, if you were unable to connect via the command line, you can use Total Commander to connect.
Hello admin, Please explain to me what an FTP server is and can I create it myself on my computer?
In short, I have a regular system unit and three laptops at home, all these machines are connected to the Internet via a router, can I make a real one out of a desktop computer? FTP server, and directly from all laptops download and upload files to it? It’s just that a regular computer has a 3 TB hard drive installed and it turns out that no one uses it, all relatives prefer laptops that are already running out of disk space.
Hello friends! Our Ro8 wrote a great article for you on this topic, read it.
Firstly, FTP is a protocol for transferring files over the Internet using the client-server principle, and An FTP server is a file storage on the Internet, that is, an ordinary computer with Windows 7, 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 installed and several large-capacity hard drives on which any of your files can be located. This computer has a program installed, for example - FileZilla Server, anyone else can connect to this computer using: command line, Windows Explorer and various programs, we will consider two in our article:FileZilla Client, And Total Commander. After connecting to Using an FTP server, you can upload any files (movies, music, etc.) to it and also download them.
ControlThe FTP server will be run by the administrator who installed the program - FileZilla Server. This is where you can assign different access rights to each user. (possibility of changing files on the server): Append (the ability to change files), Read (read only), Write (record), Delete (delete). Naturally, most users do not need to be given Delete rights.
- Note: From almost any computer or laptop (even with one hard drive) you can make FTP server and connect other computers to it to receive files, and it is not at all necessary that all computers be connected to one router,An FTP server can be created on the Internet and given access to hundreds and thousands of users.
How the work happens
As a software implementation of an FTP server, the article will consider the FileZilla Server program, which will be installed on a machine with Windows Server 2012
Also, the machine from which the connection to the created FTP server will be made is a computer with pre-installed Windows 8.1 Enterprise (x64)
In order for a machine with Windows 8.1 to connect to the FTP server, the FileZilla Client program will be installed on it (one of the methods of connecting using this program)
Go to https://filezilla-project.org and download FileZilla Server and FileZilla Client
Downloaded file We run FileZilla Server on a machine with Windows Server 2012, A FileZilla Client file on a Windows 8.1 machine. Both programs are installed the same way. First of all, let's install the FileZilla Server program.
Installing FileZilla Server
After running the downloaded FileZilla Server file on Windows Server 2012, click next
Click Install
Install
FileZilla Server installation process
Installation completed
After installation, a window like this will open in which we enter the local address of the FTP server and click OK
After entering the local FTP server address, the main window of the FileZilla Server program will appear
Let's make some settings by selecting Edit-Users
On the General tab, to add a new user, click on the Add button
Enter your username. OK
Next to Password, check the box and enter the password of the added user
Go to the Shared Folders tab. On this tab we will add the folder FTP01 which will be available to the created user Ro8. Click Add
Specify the previously created folder FTP01. OK
Select the added folder and specify access rights for it: - Read (read only), Write (write), Delete (delete), Append (the ability to change files in this folder)
Determining the IP address of a machine running Windows Server 2012 (192.168.1.4)
Installing FileZilla Client
We switch to a machine with Windows 8.1 and install the FileZilla Client program
We accept the license agreement
Installation
Installation completed
We have a network represented in the diagram
Let's connect to the FTP server in various ways.
Connect to the FTP server using the command line
On a machine with Windows 8.1, launch the command line.
Specify the username (Ro8) and enter the password. The password is not displayed when entering
Logged on means that we have logged into the FTP server
Create a folder My_Backup_win8.1 on the FTP server by entering the command mkdir My_Backup_win8.1
Let's look at the list of folders on the FTP server by entering the ls command
As you can see, there is a folder My_Backup_win8.1 on the FTP server
Close the connection to the FTP server by entering the bye command
Connecting to an FTP server using the T program otal Commander
Let's launch the Total Commander file manager on a machine with Windows 8.1. To set up a connection to the FTP server, click on the button shown in the screenshot
Click Add
We specify the connection name (optional), server and port (the server is the IP address of the FTP server, the port is set to 21). We also indicate the username and password. OK
Select the created FTP connection and click Connect
Connection to FTP server established
To disconnect from the FTP server, click Disconnect
Disconnection from FTP server completed
Connecting to an FTP server using the program FileZilla Client
Let's launch the FileZilla Client program
The main program window will open
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used for transferring files in TCP networks.
Today it is used primarily for downloading information from a client device to hosting servers. Let's consider a Windows 7 FTP server.
The protocol was created in 1971, long before the advent of the TCP/IP stack, which was released only in the late 70s.
Initially, in its first edition, the protocol used the same channel for transmitting commands and transmitting data.
But already in 1972, the protocol became very similar to the one we are dealing with today - for the exchange between the server and the client, a separate control channel is created, which operates on port 21, data is transferred via a data channel, for which a separate connection is created.
The latest version of the protocol was presented in 1985.
A significant disadvantage of FTP is its numerous security vulnerabilities, a list of which was compiled and published in 1999: the problem of port hijacking, username protection, low resistance to brute force, spoof, sniff, and hidden attacks.
Data transfer using FTP is carried out in clear text, without traffic encryption, thus, access to logins, passwords, control commands, etc. can be obtained by third parties who are able to intercept the packet over the network.
This problem is typical for all earlier versions of protocols (for example, email SMTP, POP, IMAP) developed before the advent of SSL and TLS encryption mechanisms.
In this article, we will look at creating an FTP server based on Windows 7.
Step 1: Install the FTP component
1.2. In the search field, enter “Programs and Features,” without quotes.
1.3. Select the appropriate menu item.
1.4. In the window that appears, in the left column, go to the “Turn Windows components on or off” menu.
1.5. Select the Windows components that should be installed - FTP server and IIS Management Console.
Step 2. Configure the FTP server
2.2. In the search field, enter “Administration”, without quotes.
2.3. Select the appropriate menu item.
2.4. In the window that appears, go to the “IIS Services Manager” menu.
2.5 Go to the “sites” tab, right-click and select “Add FTP site”.
2.6. We enter the name of the FTP server and the path to the folder in which the information will be stored, and proceed to the next setting item - “Next”. As an example, a subdirectory ftpsw7 was created.
2.7. In the IP address selection field, select the desired IP address from the list. If you need to share a folder for all available subnets, select “All free”.
We leave the standard port (21) unchanged.
If you plan to use the FTP server on an ongoing basis, check the “Launch FTP site automatically” checkbox. Select "No SSL".
2.8. We select basic authentication and leave the authorization field unchanged. This completes the FTP server setup.
After configuration, the newly created FTP server will appear in the “sites” menu.
Step 3: Firewall Settings
To open the appropriate ports and allow FTP server services, you must configure the Windows Firewall settings. For this:
3.2. In the search field, enter “Firewall”, without quotes.
3.3. Select the appropriate menu item.
3.4. Go to the “Rules for incoming connections” menu and enable two rules regarding the operation of the FTP server.
3.5. To enable, you need to right-click on each of the rules and select “Enable Rule” from the menu.
3.6. After activating the rule, its color will change to green, and the “Enabled” field will be marked “Yes”.
3.7. Let's move on to the rules for outgoing connections and, as in the previous paragraph, activate the FTP Server (FTP Traffic-Out) rule.
This completes the firewall configuration for the FTP server.
Step 4: Create FTP users and assign rights
4.2. In the search field, enter “Computer Management”, without quotes.
4.3. Select the appropriate menu item.
4.4. Go to the menu located in the left column - “Local users”. Right-click on “Groups” and select “Create Group”.
4.5. Let’s call the group “FTP users”, and in the description field we’ll give a short description of it so that after a while you can quickly remember the purpose of this group.
4.6. Let's create users for whom the FTP server will be available.
To do this, in the previous menu “Local Users”, right-click on the “Users” item, select “New User” and fill in the fields as shown in the figure.
4.7. After this, you need to add users to the previously created “FTP users” group.
To do this, right-click on the user account, select “Properties”, “Group Membership” tab, “Add” button, “Advanced”, “Search”, select a group, click “OK”.
This operation must be performed for all users who will have access to the FTP server.
4.8. The next step is to set access rights for the “FTP users” group.
To do this, you need to go to the FTP server directory (section 2.6), right-click on it, “Properties”, “Security” tab, “Add”, “Advanced”, “Search”, select the “FTP users” group, “OK”, select “Full access”, “OK”.
4.9. Let's go to the FTP server control panel (sections 2.1-2.4), after which we turn to the “FTP Authorization Rules” menu.
4.10. Right-click on an empty space, “Add allowing authorization rule”, in the “Specified roles or user groups” field, enter our group “FTP users”, in the “Permissions” field, check the “Read”, “OK” box.
These permissions will allow users belonging to the “FTP users” group to access the FTP server folder and perform a read operation, i.e. viewing.
Advice! In order for users to be able to place files and directories in the FTP server directory, as well as rename and delete them, they must check the “Record” box.
4.11. Let's go to the previous menu and configure “FTP Logging”.
Setting up an FTP server on Windows 7, Windows 8 / 8.1
Demonstration of setting up an FTP server that can be set up on your home computer in 5-10 minutes.
