<quote who="Scott Nichols">

Hello, I used to have a Ftp Server on one of Win systems. Well now I don't use Win at all :-) and I would like to get a ftp server back up. I looked into the other (pro etc.) and this appears to be a faster and more stable so I would like to try it. Has anybody configured it? Have any Doc's or perhaps a config example? I have not yet setup a Ftp server with Lin and I have a Linksys Router so that may pose a problem perhaps? If I forward should that not be enough thru the router? Sorry so long but just trying to complete finish up a few grey areas in Linux and any help would be greatly appriciated.

my ftpds of choice currently are NcFTPd(ncftp.com) and proftpd. they both have unique strengths, NcFTPd i am more fond of mainly because I do not remember there ever being a security problem publically announced about it. I have only been watching security stuff for about 3 years though. as for a linksys router, the router brand/model is not as important as how it is configured. be aware many ISPs forbid servers(especially FTP) of any kind(I pay extra so i can run serverrs off my isp). The biggest hurdle will be if you are hosting the machine in a dynamic NAT enviornment. which means multiple ip addresses are hosted behind your linksys router (172.16.x 192.168.x 10.10.x etc etc) with only 1 "real" IP address on the router itself. It is possible to run a ftp server with this configuration though it is difficult. the ftp users must use passive mode when transferring files or transfers will fail. port forwarding works fine for basic ftp stuff, but when doing file transfers ftp uses random ports above 1024, making it near impossible to port forward for. my advice - - if you are in a NAT situation, run a HTTP or SSH server for file transfers instead. or HTTPS. - try out NcFTPd, i have not tried vsftpd, but ncftpd is quite easy to use and is free for personal use(up to 5 concurrent connections which should be enough for most, its more then enough for even my company's ftp site, though we did register! i set the conf file to max out at 5 users to limit bandwidth usage) - proftpd is mroe functional for more then 5 users (if you don't register ncftpd), but is also more complicated. one of the features i really like about ncftpd, is i can create a group (e.g. badftp) and tell ncftpd to put any users that are in that group in a chroot() in their home when they ftp in. real easy, and makes me feel better that the users are locked in their home directories. proftpd has superior authentication support I think, via PAM and native mysql and ldap(?). if your a newbie you probably want to avoid that stuff though, it wasn't till after i had used linux/unix for 5-6 years that i *started* to get into PAM and ldap authentication. I only run ftp where i absolutely have to, it's not a very good protocol and many of the (common)ftpds out there have a bad history of security issues(not just 1, but multiple events). good luck. nate (disclaimer: i have not run ftpds on suse yet i run public ftp servers on debian 2.2 and solaris/sparc currently)