Business FTP Server

TheKnat · 30 Jun 2008 at 12:42

Because of the line of work my company is in, they mainly use FTP to allow clients access to files that have been created.

Currently our FTP server is an old G4 mac running OS 9.1 and a piece of FTP software which cost a few 100 $ at the time. This has now started to fall over on a regular basis and is a pain to administer, so the company has decided it wants a new solution.

Does anyone have any experience with any FTP solutions or appliances that they can pass onto me? An initial search of the interwebs hasn't netted me many appliances and most software seems to be for windows and I'm not sure how a windows FTP server would hold up.

Criteria are mainly that it works well with macs accessing it and that its easy to create new users and home folders.

Thanks for the help

madman045 · 30 Jun 2008 at 12:57

I assume your company has a website, would it be possible to use it also for FTP?

If you had to host one internally, I tend you use Serv-U, but you could try Filezilla to see if it does the job for you..

TheKnat · 30 Jun 2008 at 13:54

We have a website but its hosted by another company. The FTP server needs to be an internal one because of the quantity and size of files that are put on it.

I was looking at FileZilla, but I really wasn't sure whether or not it would be able to handle a lot of simultaneous connections.

Rangler · 30 Jun 2008 at 16:52

Looked at G6.?

I used G6FTP heavily for many years, i had a limited license which would only allow 25 concurrent connections, but it would happily saturate a 100Mbit LES all day long.
Supports SSL too :0

Nikumba · 30 Jun 2008 at 22:39

At work we use ServU FTP server this is mainly used by the marketing dept who all have macs.

Kimbie

volkan · 30 Jun 2008 at 23:36

We use ProFTPD and it comes highly recommended!

http://www.proftpd.org/

TaLLyJ · 1 Jul 2008 at 09:07

glftpd

Street · 1 Jul 2008 at 12:31

We use PureFTP on our server, have never had any problems with it..

mosfet · 1 Jul 2008 at 17:23

G4 733MHz on OS 10.4.11 here running PureFTP with the GUI manager.

It works really well, the GUI manager is simple enough so that anyone can quickly administer users and quotas without having to pester me and it's reliable, with no crashes or security issues yet.

The only problem is the 48b LBA limit on this generation, so I've only got 127GB to play with.

TheKnat · 1 Jul 2008 at 17:38

I'll have a look at PureFTP I think next then.

I tried ServU and the interface was way to over-complicated for what it needs to be. All I want is a nice explorer style interface thats quick and easy to browse through.

So far the best one I've tried is TitanFTP, which seems to be able to do what we need, but is a bit pricey.

Sp00n · 1 Jul 2008 at 17:58

Bulletproof FTP for life.

mosfet · 1 Jul 2008 at 18:09

http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/pureftpd/ is the MacOS X manager + server you want.

TheKnat · 2 Jul 2008 at 09:42

I think the software we use is going to have to be Windows or Linux based, rather than OS X. We don't really have any macs spare and the normal intel hardware we have lying around can easily be upgraded and expanded for this solution.

Sp00n · 2 Jul 2008 at 12:05

You could always use IIS

sparkey196 · 2 Jul 2008 at 13:26

Make sure you enforce TLS/SSL as you dont want to be sending passwords/data in plaintext.

TheKnat · 2 Jul 2008 at 13:34

sparkey196 said:
Make sure you enforce TLS/SSL as you dont want to be sending passwords/data in plaintext.

Sounds like a good idea, just need to get a cert first.

sparkey196 · 2 Jul 2008 at 14:15

You can just make one for free with openssl

Vtec9k · 2 Jul 2008 at 16:54

I use VSftp (http://vsftpd.beasts.org/) on RHEL4. Run the Bastille lockdown scripts on it and your sorted.

Very lightweight, configurable and secure.

R4z0r · 11 Jul 2008 at 12:15

Vtec9k said:
I use VSftp (http://vsftpd.beasts.org/) on RHEL4. Run the Bastille lockdown scripts on it and your sorted.

Very lightweight, configurable and secure.

This is what I'd go for. Extrenmely fast, reliable, and secure. Pureftpd and proftpd are also excellent but my vote would be vsftpd.