FTP Server / Networking Storage

[CalcProgrammer1]

War FTP Daemon. Easy to use, Windows 95 to Vista compatible, it's an awesome FTP server for Windows. If you are going Linux, use ProFTPd and GProFTPd (the GUI for it) but if you are hosting on a Windows PC I'd use War FTP. It has a Users panel that lets you set individual file access permissions, directories, etc for each individual user or groups of users.

 

[objecterror]

Get VMware server an set one up with a linux image there are plenty of ones out there that you just have to fill in the details an your away.

A friend of mine was running VMware, should I get another PC for that? It would make a great excuse to
1. Build a new computer
2. Have my own server

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Why do people always associate FTP server with Linux? Just because you want to run an FTP server DOES NOT MEAN YOU NEED LINUX! Linux makes a great FTP server but you can serve just fine in Windows, no virtual machine or second PC needed!

 

[Kharn]

Calc there is 2 reasons I recommend a Unix system over windows for a server:
1) It's cheaper.
2) It's prity much the best OS out there for server work Windows is capable but not as efficient in my eyes.
3) I am a bit of a fan boy and I want to spread the word as much as i can.

Object yes you can build another one but honestly do you need a excuse? But a VM would make more sense atm unless you want it to be a perminat fixture on your network.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I agree that Linux makes a better FTP, the question here is that, the user already has a Windows machine. There's no reason to virtualize a Linux PC under Windows when you could just use Windows, as VM's tend to run slower than native code and aren't very efficient. If you had two PC's, definitely go for Linux unless there's some reason that you must stay in Windows (I had set up an Ubuntu HTTP/FTP/VNC server but switched it to WinXP after finding that Gmod Dedicated had problems in Wine).

What I'm saying is, I recommend Linux over Windows as a server, but if all you have is Windows, I'd recommend using Windows native over a VM (not sure about you guys, I just dislike VM's in general, they're good for testing an OS before installing it natively, but for any sort of real use I stay away from them as they are a fairly large performance hit to both OS'es).

 

[Kharn]

Well I am thinking about the security side of things by recommending a VM the OS is neutral from the guest an because it's a FTP server it wont be doing much often at all, so neither the guest OR the host OS will see much of a performance hit.

Also I think a VM is the only way to go on a single box solution, **** I have in my room where i am sitting now, Main desktop, MacBook, Server 1 an server 2, on my desktop my BSD VM is booted up and my Solaris one is going to be booted in the next hour to test somthing out. On my macbook I have my 2000pro VM booted an on there i have 2 linux distros and a XP vm powerd off. The main server has a few VM's on it one of them being a demo server for any stuff i need to try out on my main VM (new apachi builds etc) and a few other ones doing differnt jobs.

So if i was to have a dedicated box for all of my OS's i use I would need my own power plant.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Wow, I try to use as few OS'es as possible, because it really isn't necessary to run everything in a different OS. Windows, Linux, OSX, pretty much everything has a native FTP server (OSX can host FTP without any external programs!) and there are plenty of HTTP servers out there. I also have mainly older hardware, single core processor machines (an AthlonXP and a Sempron) that I run servers on, these older machines aren't great for VM's but native apps run great. The only reason I would use a VM is as a testing environment with an OS that I'd never use otherwise, but I see no reason to test OS'es that I wouldn't use (not developing anything right now). For something as simple as an FTP though, I wouldn't recommend a VM. I also don't see how a native FTP would be that big of a security issue, worst that can happen is someone accesses your files that you've set for your account or deletes them, so if you backup you won't have a problem.

 

[Kharn]

Well thing is I am a OS whore I collect OS's I have about 400 floppy disks with various OS's on an a 5.5in collection to, an my CD an DVD collection I have lost count of including legacy ones (for support an older systems). I keep a fair amount of old hardware knocking about I have a BBC micro computer and I Have 386 and a 486 systems an many spare parts for them I just dont get to play with them much as most of them live in the attic.

The security issue is a minor one but I am kinda paranoid about server security and I am playing around with metasploit a fair bit on a FTP server VM i set up and you would be surprised how much access you can get if a FTP server is set up on a main OS that is why i either Dedicated a box for it or a VM because i can't afford the space for another Rig atm.

 

[Osiris]

Metasploit is AWESOME

 

[Kharn]

You got that right