Configuring FileZilla

This menu should pop up after the installation. Just hit okay to continue. Every computer technically has 2 IP addresses- whatever DHCP or statically assigned IP and also 127.0.0.1 which means itself or localhost.

Dealing With Routers

For those that are not being a router, you can go ahead and skip to the next section

Under the Edit->Settings->Passive Mode Settings is the following menu:

For those with do not have a router and are directly connected to the internet, nothing in this menu should change and just hit cancel. For others, it will require slight modification. A quick visit to What is my IP will grab the external IP address. This can be entered into the "Use the Following IP" field. If for some reason that fails, there is the third option where the program automatically polls an external website to try to find your IP. This method may be better for those with IPs that are always changing. Mine is always the same so it is just entered in manually.

Unfortunately, a bit more work has to be done for users with routers. Hit Start, Run and type in command. After that type in ipconfig. That should list an IP address that should be in the form of 192.168.0.x . A new rule will have to be added to the router to map the IP address of the computer to port 21. This way, the router knows that inbound traffic from port 21 should be directed to the service on that particular computer. A better source of information would be the router's manual.

Adding Users

Under the Edit->Users Menu is the following screen.

On the far right, is a button Add. Pick a username and keep groups to none for the time being. The chosen user name should now appear in the box to the right. Highlight the name as shown in the picture. It would be a good idea to check on password and to enter a password for the user. Voila. We have a user who can access the FTP now. But the user will not be able to do too much because by default he does not have access to any directories.

There is an addition add button in the center of the User dialogue. When this button is hit, the usual My Computer style directory tree is shown. Select the directory that is to be shared and hit ok. Highlighting the directory will allow access to the Files and Directories dialogue boxes.

Files

Read - Allows the users to read files in the directory. Without read enabled, users will not be allowed to download files.

Write* - Allows the user to write files to the directory

Delete* - Allows users to delete files from the directory

Append* - Allows the user to modify existing files in the directory. For example if an upload gets interrupted, files that can be appended to can continue on at the point where the transfer failed.

Directories

Create - Allows the user to create a new subdirectory

Delete - Allows the user to delete a directory

List - Allows an user to list the files in a directory

+Subdirs - Allows access to subdirectories with the same file permissions

A good rule of thumb is to allow the fewest permissions possible. For a FTP server used to distribute files it is recommended that only read, list and possibly +subdirs are enabled. It is a bad idea to allow write, delete, and append in directories with other files as a lot of files can be accidentally or maliciously destroyed. If file uploads are something that is needed, create a seperate directory specifically for that purpose to isolate it from important files that are not to be changed.