Creating a password protected Personal FTP Server using
Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.x and 6.x
Note: Installation steps apply only to Microsoft Windows 2000, XP Professional, Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition or Windows Server 2003. If you are using Windows XP Home Edition you will need to install a 3rd Party FTP server as the components used in this guide are not available on Home Edition Machines. It should be noted that there is a 10 connection limit and a maximum file size limit of 2 Gb in IIS on non Server editions of Windows.
To find a list of 3rd party servers click here.
First of all you would need to create a new limited password protected user
which will be used to logon to the ftp server. In Windows XP you can do this via Users in the control Panel
Next go to add/remove programs, then add/remove windows components from the left bar, an item called 'Internet information services (IIS)' will be listed, select this and click the details button. For an FTP server you only require 'common files', 'file transfer protocol (FTP) service' and 'Internet Information Services Snap-in', click ok and then next (you'll be prompted for your Windows installer CD at this point). If you wish to host web pages you will need common files and the world wide web service item within the details of world wide web service.
After IIS has installed go to administrative tools in the control panel (classic view) and open Internet Information Services.
Expand <Your PC Name> (Local Computer) and do the same for FTP Sites. Now
right click on 'default ftp site' and view its properties. Click the
security accounts tab and uncheck 'allow anonymous connections'. if you also
wish your users to write to the server click the home directory tab and put
a tick in the Write box. If your using the Windows XP firewall or 3rd Party firewall you will need to open port 21 for to allow users to connect to the server.
The area files will be read and written to on your hard disk is C:\Inetpub\ftproot. The FTP service logs are stored in %windir%\system32\Logfiles\MSFTPSVC1 in the
default configuration. These locations can be changed on the Home Directory and FTP Site tabs of the default ftp site properties respectively.
After reaching this stage it is advisable to visit the Windows Update site as the
Security roll up patches for IIS are fairly important. If you are using Windows XP be sure to have installed Service Pack 1, or Service Pack 4 if you are using Windows 2000 (Users of Windows 2000 and XP please see part 4 of this guide). If you are using Windows Server 2003 and have terminal services also installed, check the properties of the new user you have created for this server and be sure to uncheck ‘Allow logon to Terminal Services’ on the Remote Access tab, by default this will be checked and enable remote logon which is a security risk.
Part 2: Controlling Server Access
