Need to Make an FTP Site

[tharden3]

Hey all, had a question for you. I had volunteered to do some work in computers for my Engineering Academy's director. She asked that I build an FTP web site for a company in New York. Where do I start? Should I write this by hand or invest in Dreamweaver or something?
P.S. I am very fluent in HTML/CSS

[Nepomuk]

What do you mean with "FTP Site"? Are you talking about something like this? Or do you want to setup an FTP Server?

Greetings,
Nepomuk

[tharden3]

What do you mean with "FTP Site"? Are you talking about something like this? Or do you want to setup an FTP Server?

Greetings,
Nepomuk

I assume something like in the provided link, although a client to client FTP would be faster and more secure. She wasn't very clear on directions, but I'm pretty sure it'd be a browser run FTP.

[tharden3]

What do you mean with "FTP Site"? Are you talking about something like this? Or do you want to setup an FTP Server?

Greetings,
Nepomuk

yes, I need something like you've provided in your link. I'd like clients to be able to navigate to an HTTP site, then login w/ a password, and provide a link to the FTP (just like the one above). How do I go about doing this? I'm awfully confused.

[joedeene]

It seems like there is no authentication basically or some kinda of server-side code that shows it all, here's where the link leads to "ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/ubuntu-releases/hardy/". The beginning is Ftp:// and not Http:// so it seems they basically have no authentication....

joedeene

[tharden3]

Ok, I've looked at Filezilla and have decided that I'm going to use it as my FTP software. Now, I'm new to this, and honestly I don't understand a lot, so try to help make things clearer. I have a web host. I'd like to have an FTP run through a browser. Obviously, Filezilla has to be running from somewhere on some machine. Can I upload it to my web host? Do I have to run the server from my computer? Can I run the server on my web host's machine? What's the difference between a client and a server? Will I need both?

Please Keep in mind, I'd like to run an FTP somewhere, preferably on the web host's machine. Then I'd like to be able to access those files from any browser, on any computer.

I understand these are a lot of questions at once, but I'm really out in the cold as how to do this. Any answers to my questions are appreciated.

[Curtis Rutland]

What host are you running on? Linux or Windows?

I'm pretty unfamiliar with Apache, but I know that IIS can easily set up an FTP site.

Here's the thing...if you are on shared hosting like GoDaddy or 1and1 or Dreamhost, you can't install programs on their server...you will have to use the built in FTP tools.

If you have a dedicated server, or a virtual private server, you can install what you need. I have used WS_FTP as an FTP server and found it amazing, although expensive.

Most browsers can handle FTP, so that won't be a problem. FTP is a protocol...like HTTP is. So when you set up a site, you aren't setting up pages, it's more like setting up directories to be exposed. Then any FTP client, including browsers, can handle it. There's no HTML involved or anything.

I hope that helps somewhat. I'd look up a good tutorial on setting up an FTP server, since you're new at this.

[Curtis Rutland]

It seems like there is no authentication basically or some kinda of server-side code that shows it all, here's where the link leads to "ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/ubuntu-releases/hardy/". The beginning is Ftp:// and not Http:// so it seems they basically have no authentication....

joedeene

It's not that they have "no authentication," it's that they allow anonymous access. You can set different access levels on different directories. Some can be public, some restricted to certain authenticated users or groups.

Just so you know...FTP authentication is sent "in the clear," meaning that it is not encrypted before it is sent. It is relatively unsecure.

If security is a must, you might want to look into SFTP, but that's more complicated.

There are some other possibilities as well. There are services that offer online file storage. For example, Dropbox allows you to make separate accounts, and then link some of your directories to another account to share. Also, they have a public folder that is available to anyone. This may be something to look into if you don't have direct access to your server.

I have used dropbox, and I find their service to be quite useful and neat. Files that follow you around wherever you go, and the ability to "share" some folders makes for quite a powerful tool.

[tharden3]

I hope that helps somewhat. I'd look up a good tutorial on setting up an FTP server, since you're new at this.

That clears a whole lot of things up. Thanks very much.