Only after i did it i learnt, things aren't as difficult as they seem to be. I recently got a chance to set up my own FTP server. Not only that, i also made people use it. That was a real win.

So here's the thing, Due to some technical problems my company's **FTP server was non-functional or i would say, it didn't give the results as per expectations. So i started looking for alternatives. Since the QA team tests mostly on a Windows machine i was looking for a Windows **FTP server setup. I am not sure if any **FTP server setup software is available for free, but after some research i only found some paid **FTP server softwares for Windows which i didn't really want.

The project requirement was such that the, the application will be continuosly monitoring the **FTP server. A cronjob will be setup which will look for some **XML files in the FTP servers xyz directory. The found XMLs will be auto-ingested into the application by a POST and the Database will be updated accordingly.

So i needed an **FTP. Obviously, i was looking for a free one. **Ubuntu came for my rescue. I would rather say, i got another reason for why i prefer Linux over Windows.

vsftpd - Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon

vsftpd is an **ftp server for **Linux and Unix machines distributed under GNU public license. It supports almost all Linux systems and it is fairly easy to install as well. You can customize a welcome message for people logging in to your server. And all the required changes just needs to be done in a configuration text file. That was awesome!!!

More about vsftpd can be read from Wikipedia

Steps to install and have your own vsftpd

I would say 4 simple steps (on Ubuntu Linux) and you have you FTP server started.

1. sudo apt-get install vsftpd
2. Open the configuration text file vsftpd.conf in your favorite editor  "vim /etc/vsftpd.conf"
3. Make the required changes and save the file (Changes are discussed below)
4. Start the vsftpd service by sudo service vsftpd start OR /etc/init.d/vsftpd start

You have your own FTP server setup.  Important changes in the configuration file:

listen=YES

Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).

anonymous_enable=YES

Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.

local_enable=YES

Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.

write_enable=YES

Directory which you want to be the root FTP directory

local_root=/srv/ftp/   # Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they

 # go into a certain directory.

 dirmessage_enable=YES   # If enabled, vsftpd will display directory listings with the time

 # in  your  local  time  zone.  The default is to display GMT. The

 # times returned by the MDTM FTP command are also affected by this

 # option.

 use_localtime=YES   # Activate logging of uploads/downloads.

 xferlog_enable=YES   # Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).

  connect_from_port_20=YES  # You may fully customise the login banner string:

 ftpd_banner=Welcome to Roshan's FTP service.  # This option should be the name of a directory which is empty.  Also, the

 # directory should not be writable by the ftp user. This directory is used

 # as a secure chroot() jail at times vsftpd does not require filesystem

 # access.

 secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty  # This string is the name of the PAM service vsftpd will use.

 pam_service_name=vsftpd  # This option specifies the location of the RSA certificate to use for SSL

 # encrypted connections.

 rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem

This is all you need to do to have a personal FTP.

To login to your **ftp server you need to do the following in a **Linux or Windows Terminal.

ftp <your_ip_addres>
Username: <for_ur_machine>

Password:  logged in

all the transfer operations can now be performed