FTP anonymous access on server 2003 enterprise edotion

Are you sure you want people putting files on your ftp server with an anonymous login? That is a huge potential problem.

I realize this, but i want a friend to upload a 25 mb file to my server. I was planning to turn it off as soon as the file transfer is complete. I would recover it from my server with PC Anywhere

I am also afraid to try username and password as I understand this is also dangerous because the username and password can be easily read. Is there a more secure and relatively easy way to set up an ftp server?

Thanks
Al

You could create a temporary account for just this purpose and then delete it when the files are uploaded.

I haven't tested this with 2003, but it very likely that uploads are impossinle for "anonymous".

It looks like uploads are impossible, I sure can't get it going, no matter what I try. What sort of temporary acoount are you thinking of? One with a username and password? I was initially planning to set up an anonymous access account then stop it when file transfer was finished...

I was thinking just a normal user account with a password, not administrator. I have done that for our own ftp server.

I tried that. I first made a user account on the server and unchecked the "use anonymous access"  and required a login from the account I created. I must have missed something somewhere. If i enter the password it won't accept it either. I hope it sounds like something familiar?

You have to give FTP users permission to "log in locally"

The way I did this is to create a new group (say FTPusers), then give the log-in locally permission to that group, and then if any user needs to connect with FTP you can make that user a member of the FTPusers group.

The details are here:

 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;200475

See the section for Windows 2000.

I'm using windows 2003 server and things are a bit different on it than Win2000 server in the tutorial files. I did start MMC, get to the console root and added "Allow log on locally" I also added an acoount in the users, then created a group called "FTPusers" with the new user in it, but it doesn't like or allow the password period. Thanks for your help I will try again tomorrow.. This is very frustrating

:-)

Verify that you have the FTP Service installed.

Goto Control Panel -> Add & Remove Programs
Select Add/Remove Windows Compontents
Select Application Server -> Click Details
Select IIS -> Click Details
Make sure FTP Service is Checked

If not, this is your problem.  Go through the motions of installing it.  Windows may ask for your installation CD's.

I set one up on vmware without any problems (anonymous).  Can read, write, modify.
What are the permissions you have set on the ftp site & what do you have set on the actual folder?

Thanks GeneralMandible. I don't know what VMware is, but I am after a simple password protected FTP site. I access all my servers with PC Anywhere to upload files and do admin configuration with Terminal Services. I have set up the FTP plug-In properly, but I am missing something. I am going to password protect it now even though it will only be open for short periods.
I am currently reviewing the tutorial sent by r-k and I am attempting it again from scratch Thank you both very much for your help. Much appreciated!

I see what is happening now. I have put a text file in the folder for my FTP site. I can't even see the file from my IIS Manager window. I am going to try another server. I could try to re and re IIS, but there are 5 asp web sites running on this box. I will try another now then.

MY PORT 21 WAS LOCKED DOWN! That was the problem. Can I use a different port than this for my FTP?????

Just got back. Thanks for accepting the answer. Hope this means things are working now.

Hi r-k

Actually no they aren't at all. I gave up. I have tried on 3 different servers and it just won't connect. Maybe it's a problem with "Allow local user", I'm not sure. I'll try that again, but the "Allow local user" plugin from MMC doesn't look quite the same on my servers as it does in the tutoriaI. I though it was the port 21 being closed, but no. This use to be a straight forward thing. Maybe all the new Microsoft patches are causing this not to work anymore? It's really bizarre. Thanks for your help, if you can think of anything else I might not be doing..... Maybe I should try WS_FTP?

Thank you
Al

I got it working finally. It was the permission on the folder its self.  Many thanks

:-)

That's great. Happy FTPing.