How to Create an FTP Server: Step by Step Instruction

How to create an FTP server and client on any computer, either personal machine or server mainframe, is a part of system administration backbone practice. To simplify this task for beginners, we provide the step-by-step instruction.

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Step One: How to Create FTP Server at Home

To put your own FTP server into operation, you will need to set up some software, or use the built-in Windows FTP server protocol. We recommend using some specialized server software, such as free FileZilla Server, instead of Windows IIS tools.

To set up your FTP server based on FileZilla, download the software package and install it with server components included. Then to give your server the operational status, please follow the instruction included below:

1. Open FileZilla server interface and set up your server connection with 127.0.0.1 as IP.
2. In the settings panel, select all the parameters for your FTP you plan to use.
3. To set user accounts, follow the “Edit”, then “Users”. Enter connection data for each user.
4. When you finish, press “OK”. It seems reasonable to restart your computer after tuning.

These are many technical features touching FTP setup process, such as port list or shared folder access rights for different users. Detailed instructions are far beyond the size of this guide. You can find it by entering “setup FTP FileZilla” in searching engines, such as Google.

How to Configure FTP Server for Windows 7

Some users prefer utilizing built-in FTP functions of Windows 7 instead of external FTP server software. To do that, please open the administering panel on Windows 7 and do the things in a next eequence:

• Select the Programs feature.
• Click to the option called Turn Windows Features On or Off.
• Mark the Internet Information Services (IIS) option in the Windows Features to toggle it on.
• Expand the following features section.
• Mark the FTP Server feature to be “On”.
• Click OK and return from the administering panel.

Then restart your machine (it is recommended, to be sure that all changes are applied correctly). That is all; your built-in FTP server will begin functioning.

Step Two: How to Setup FTP Server and Client Connection

This is simple. In your FTP client, such as FileZilla client, you must enter the FTP server name or external IP address you designate for your FTP server, created by previous step. Then choose the appropriate port to connect. That is all; you link your FTP client and server.

Step Three: How to Access Your FTP Server

Any FTP client, like the FileZilla free client mentioned before, can be used for accessing your server. All you need is to know the server name or, preferably, IP address, the list of available ports, and, for secured servers, your user name and password.

Remember, however, the word “FTP” means only the file transferring protocol. It does not allow changing files by the place, remote opening or securing. Please use cloud services instead of FTP if you want to implement any such activity.

How to access FTP Server via Browser

The different way of connection to FTP is using a browser, like Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, or, sometimes, a file browser like Windows Explorer. To connect with your FTP, please enter to the address field the string like that:

There “xxxx” sequences substitutes for elements of IP address or, after the colon, for the port selected to connect with an FTP. If an access to FTP is secured by password, you will be prompted to enter the user name and password by the pop-up window.

After the authentication, you can use folders and files located on the FTP server as it were local files and folders located somewhere on your machine. The list of functions is often minimal, including uploading, downloading, renaming, moving and deleting FTP-located data.

Conclusion

This cannot be a complete article about how to create an FTP server for free. Many tricks, considerations and tunings are available in different instructional scripts and videos, making the life of a system administrator much simpler.

Therefore, if you are planning to set up your own free FTP server, we are strongly recommending giving a bit more time for researching different aspects of this process, such as backup from FTP or backup to FTP, turning your future personal FTP server into a mighty fortress of data.