can someone please recommend me a FTP solution

T

[TYPE]SS

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 2, 2001
Messages
438
again.. i own a photo whole sale business. i have people uploading photos to me all day for printing and for making albums. i need a simple FTP solution.

as of right now.. im using accountservice.com but it will expire very soon and these guys were always giving me headache when it comes to storing files and stuff.

i have a 4tb machine on my network as a file storage and ive just upgraded to fios business acct which gives me 5 static ips.

is there a way or a program to easily have my customers send files to my 4tb machine directly so i dont have to download the files once its been uploaded ? (so that i can print straight from the storage via network)

give me some suggestions.
thanx guys
 
What OS on the "4tb machine"?

Also what speed tier from vzw? and how many uploads expected per week?
 
win 7 pro on the 4tb machine and as far as internet speed goes, it really doesnt matter to me how long it takes for them to upload it to me since pickups are not required daily.

i just want to save some of my time by NOT needing to download from the server but rather just print it straight from my storage.

I also want to have them make private log-ins so they cant see other photos except for their own.
 
Since it's running Win7 Pro, you can just load up IIS and use the Microsoft FTP server. Setup a domain name through someone like (not recommending based on experience) godaddy or network solutions, and point your dns a record at your static IP. then your clients can just point their ftp client at the domain name and upload straight to your ftp host. You'll of course need to NAT and open firewall rules for FTP.
 
Filezilla Server

You will probably have to do some futzing around to get FTP to work properly in passive mode if you're behind NAT, but get the server up first and then we can help you with that.
 
keenan said:
Filezilla Server

You will probably have to do some futzing around to get FTP to work properly in passive mode if you're behind NAT, but get the server up first and then we can help you with that.
Click to expand...

I'd 2nd that. Filezilla is awesome and is super easy to configure / maintain.
 
FileZilla server rocks and I use it all the time, but doesn't do SFTP. It does FTP over SSL which is a different animal, so be careful if you need secure FTP transmissions.

For SFTP sessions, I use Ipswitch's FTP Server, which costs about $300, but is easy as hell to set up and run.

If you don't care about secure FTP, then Filezilla server is the beast for you.
 
agrikk said:
FileZilla server rocks and I use it all the time, but doesn't do SFTP. It does FTP over SSL which is a different animal, so be careful if you need secure FTP transmissions.

For SFTP sessions, I use Ipswitch's FTP Server, which costs about $300, but is easy as hell to set up and run.

If you don't care about secure FTP, then Filezilla server is the beast for you.
Click to expand...

We do mostly client data here... while it should be kept confidential, it doesn't include any "personal information" as described by MA law 201 CMR 17.00: M.G.L. c. 93H (pdf). What would be a scenario when you would want SFTP vs. FTP w/ SSL? Why is FTP w/ SSL a "different animal" - is that bad?

I have the need for an FTP server and would love to use a free solution such as FileZilla. It will be a first time setup for me (never done an FTP server before) but I am assuming I put it in the DMZ (when I get one set up) and it is good to go?

Thanks!
 
Filezilla is a great FTP program, it is really easy to set up. The hardest part will be educating your customers on how to use the client program to connect and upload files.

A great program I have been using to transfer and synchronize files is called Dropbox. With this your customers can just drag and drop photos into their Dropbox folder then the files are uploaded to the net and synchronized to your computer.
 
ciggwin said:
What would be a scenario when you would want SFTP vs. FTP w/ SSL? Why is FTP w/ SSL a "different animal" - is that bad?

I have the need for an FTP server and would love to use a free solution such as FileZilla. It will be a first time setup for me (never done an FTP server before) but I am assuming I put it in the DMZ (when I get one set up) and it is good to go?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

A good article on the pros/cons of different ways of securing FTP right here.

Yes. Install FileZilla server in a DMZ. Then you probably will want to poke some holes in your filewall for the FTP control port and a range for your passive ftp connections (probably a hundred TCP ports will do) then specify that range in FileZilla.


Most FTP programs can determine active or passive mode on the FTP server and will adjust accordingly, but some can't so you have to go with the least common denominator and set up a passive range.
 
agrikk said:
Most FTP programs can determine active or passive mode on the FTP server and will adjust accordingly, but some can't so you have to go with the least common denominator and set up a passive range.
Click to expand...

If both ends are behind NAT and neither has holes poked through it, FTP can't work at all. If you want to guarantee that your FTP will always be accessible, you need to set the server end up properly, since you obviously can't rely on clients to poke holes in their firewall just to use FTP. As long as one end is set up, most clients can indeed figure it out.

One reason SFTP/SCP is a lot more convenient if you're not stuck on Windows (control and data on the same connection), where it is expensive and/or a huge pain in the ass to use (do correct me if I'm wrong, a free/cheap SSH/SFTP server on Windows would be nice, but the OpenSSH ports out there are pretty dismal).
 
He's got 5 static IPs. How many users do you serve? If you have a few concurrent users you will need something to do traffic shaping otherwise a few users will choke off everyone else (with photo upload, especially large photos). You could always give the win7 machine a public IP address. How is the network set up and do you have any other server?
 
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