[HOWTO] - Setup FTP access on your OSX machine.
- Thread starter swizcore
- Start date
PowermacG4_450
OS X Jaguar
hmmmm, not sure about that one.. ya got me!
PowermacG4_450
OS X Jaguar
did I help you any? I hope so. 
hey, not required, but if you like, check out:
http://www.artieevans.com/sponsors.html
and see if you can help us..... its a new site...
appreciate your help..... good luck, stay away from those pee cee's.
hey, not required, but if you like, check out:
http://www.artieevans.com/sponsors.html
and see if you can help us..... its a new site...
appreciate your help..... good luck, stay away from those pee cee's.
Thank you again,
Let me try and explain....
About a year or so ago, my buddy gave me his ip address so i could get some audio plugins from his computer. When i typed in his address, it took me to a text-like page. Then i saw thew file called "plugins.sit" So i clicked on it, downloaded it, unstuffed it, and got all the files i needed.
Now that i am starting to learn a bit about it, Im wondering how he did that. I remember it was like a 90 meg file, and i got it in less than a minute.
Maybe he had a different type of setup?? I'm Not sure...
Any more help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Let me try and explain....
About a year or so ago, my buddy gave me his ip address so i could get some audio plugins from his computer. When i typed in his address, it took me to a text-like page. Then i saw thew file called "plugins.sit" So i clicked on it, downloaded it, unstuffed it, and got all the files i needed.
Now that i am starting to learn a bit about it, Im wondering how he did that. I remember it was like a 90 meg file, and i got it in less than a minute.
Maybe he had a different type of setup?? I'm Not sure...
Any more help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Okay Nick,
there are two ways to do this
1 - through the http protocol
A - The nicest way
to do this is to make a webpage, that you put in the "Sites" directory of your home dir.
If you don't know how to make a webpage, then skip this and go to 2 OR try to get the knowledge to make a simple webpage(it isn't that hard, just buy html for dummies and off you go)
If you created your webpage, call this page index.html and save it in your Sites dir. Then people can just access that page by typing the url youripadress/~yourusername.
What to put in that webpage?????
In that webpage you put the title of your audiofile with a link to the file that you want to share. You do this for all your files. You can just drop those files in the same sites directory, as long as the link also point to those files. It is recommended that you stuff these files with dropstuff!!!
B - the crude way
is to just drop your files (stuffed!) in your sites directory and remove the file index.html . That way your friend just sees your directory with all files sitting there.
Now your friend opens internet explorer and types:
youripaddres/~yourusername.
Then she/he can see
a - your webpage
or
b - all the file that you dropped in your sites dir
if your friend just clicks these links or the files, the download starts.
2 -The other way to do this is through ftp
That is explained very well in the first entry of this topic
Then you asked what program to use for ftp
I use Captain ftp and I think it is just the best ftp tool for OS X right now. You can download it through
www.xdsnet.net/captain/CaptainFTP1.4.tar.gz
This is shareware but you can get a free registration when you are a home user. You'll have to register for that though.
Open Captain ftp.
Go to the menu Connection/addressbook
click new
type a session name (like "my friend's supercool G4"
type the-ipaddress-you-want-to-connect-to, or, if your friend has his own domain type www.yourfriendsdomainname.com
give the username that your friend provides you with
type the pasword
hit OK and there you go
Remember though that if you add ftp-access to your own machine that your friend can see and download everything that is in your homedir. If you don't want that you'll have to create a separate account with the name yourfriendsname an a password and drop all your files in the homedir of yourfriendsname.
If you're behind a router....just reply and i'll get you going.
there are two ways to do this
1 - through the http protocol
A - The nicest way
to do this is to make a webpage, that you put in the "Sites" directory of your home dir.
If you don't know how to make a webpage, then skip this and go to 2 OR try to get the knowledge to make a simple webpage(it isn't that hard, just buy html for dummies and off you go)
If you created your webpage, call this page index.html and save it in your Sites dir. Then people can just access that page by typing the url youripadress/~yourusername.
What to put in that webpage?????
In that webpage you put the title of your audiofile with a link to the file that you want to share. You do this for all your files. You can just drop those files in the same sites directory, as long as the link also point to those files. It is recommended that you stuff these files with dropstuff!!!
B - the crude way
is to just drop your files (stuffed!) in your sites directory and remove the file index.html . That way your friend just sees your directory with all files sitting there.
Now your friend opens internet explorer and types:
youripaddres/~yourusername.
Then she/he can see
a - your webpage
or
b - all the file that you dropped in your sites dir
if your friend just clicks these links or the files, the download starts.
2 -The other way to do this is through ftp
That is explained very well in the first entry of this topic
Then you asked what program to use for ftp
I use Captain ftp and I think it is just the best ftp tool for OS X right now. You can download it through
www.xdsnet.net/captain/CaptainFTP1.4.tar.gz
This is shareware but you can get a free registration when you are a home user. You'll have to register for that though.
Open Captain ftp.
Go to the menu Connection/addressbook
click new
type a session name (like "my friend's supercool G4"
type the-ipaddress-you-want-to-connect-to, or, if your friend has his own domain type www.yourfriendsdomainname.com
give the username that your friend provides you with
type the pasword
hit OK and there you go
Remember though that if you add ftp-access to your own machine that your friend can see and download everything that is in your homedir. If you don't want that you'll have to create a separate account with the name yourfriendsname an a password and drop all your files in the homedir of yourfriendsname.
If you're behind a router....just reply and i'll get you going.
Thanks alot, i really appreciate it.
I do know a little about html, and am looking to get a website up soon. Nothing fancy, just a way for my band mates to get certain tracks from my computer.
Thanks for taking the time to answer that question. Sounds like the http protocol is the way to go.
Wich of these ways will get you the fastest download times?? I realize there are alot of factors, but wich one is fastest in a perfect world???
Thanks again,
I do know a little about html, and am looking to get a website up soon. Nothing fancy, just a way for my band mates to get certain tracks from my computer.
Thanks for taking the time to answer that question. Sounds like the http protocol is the way to go.
Wich of these ways will get you the fastest download times?? I realize there are alot of factors, but wich one is fastest in a perfect world???
Thanks again,
Thnx for explaining the FTP option for OSX. But the biggest problem you've also mentioned: being behind a firewall. Or: we use a router, Vigor 2200E, and this router gives out the Ip adresses. But because of this router I cannot acces a OSX ftp server from elswhere. Could you help me out?
Thanx a lot in advance
Zig
Thanx a lot in advance
Zig
Being behind a router is not a problem.
First of all you need to give your Mac a static IP adress because you have to direct incoming access to that address. You can give your machine any address in the 192.168.x.x range as long as it is not within the range that your router uses for its DHCP engine. Since you use a vigor 2200E I asume you use the 192.168.x.x range.
Changing you dynamic addres into a static address is done in System Preferences/Network. You can see an example here. (I use the 10..x.x.x range)
Next thing you have to do is get your router to redirect all incoming ftp traffic to your Mac. Also http could be redirected.
On the vigor 2200E you do that in Advanced Setup> NAT setup> Configure Port Redirection Table. (You're a lucky bastard that I have the same router ) You can find an example here. if you have a different brand router then it must be something like this. You'll understand if you see it.
In this example you see that my public Ports are 8080 and 2121. Normally that would be 80 (http) and 21(ftp) but my cable company won't allow trafic to those ports to get through so I changed it tot 8080 and 2121. That means that all incoming trafic should also be send to those ports.
Note: I had troubles to configure this on my mac so I had to do this in windows. For some reason the router doesn't like it when I fill in the private ip address on the mac (IE)
That's all!
Now you have to know the ip address that your provider gives to your router. Your friends can now fill in the url ftp://your-router's-ip-address or ftp://your-router's-ip-address:2121 and they'll have access to your ftp site. (if you set it up properly)
same with http:
http://your-router's-ip-address or http://your-router's-ip-address:8080
Note that if your provider gives you a dynamic address that it will change regularly so you'll have to checkup on that on a regular basis.
Offcourse you can get your own domain as well but that is a whole different story
success, Ebonit
First of all you need to give your Mac a static IP adress because you have to direct incoming access to that address. You can give your machine any address in the 192.168.x.x range as long as it is not within the range that your router uses for its DHCP engine. Since you use a vigor 2200E I asume you use the 192.168.x.x range.
Changing you dynamic addres into a static address is done in System Preferences/Network. You can see an example here. (I use the 10..x.x.x range)
Next thing you have to do is get your router to redirect all incoming ftp traffic to your Mac. Also http could be redirected.
On the vigor 2200E you do that in Advanced Setup> NAT setup> Configure Port Redirection Table. (You're a lucky bastard that I have the same router
) You can find an example here. if you have a different brand router then it must be something like this. You'll understand if you see it.In this example you see that my public Ports are 8080 and 2121. Normally that would be 80 (http) and 21(ftp) but my cable company won't allow trafic to those ports to get through so I changed it tot 8080 and 2121. That means that all incoming trafic should also be send to those ports.
Note: I had troubles to configure this on my mac so I had to do this in windows. For some reason the router doesn't like it when I fill in the private ip address on the mac (IE)
That's all!
Now you have to know the ip address that your provider gives to your router. Your friends can now fill in the url ftp://your-router's-ip-address or ftp://your-router's-ip-address:2121 and they'll have access to your ftp site. (if you set it up properly)
same with http:
http://your-router's-ip-address or http://your-router's-ip-address:8080
Note that if your provider gives you a dynamic address that it will change regularly so you'll have to checkup on that on a regular basis.
Offcourse you can get your own domain as well but that is a whole different story
success, Ebonit
Sorry to say, I just tested a "test user" account from my Wintel machine using WinSock FTP32 and was able to ".." back into the rest of the system without any hesistation or complaints. Not very secure when anybody with FTP access can fiddle with the rest of my system. This "test user" does NOT have administrative abilities and all capabilities have been unchecked.
Anyway to prevent this?
Thanks again,
Robert Templeton
Anyway to prevent this?
Thanks again,
Robert Templeton
Don't know if you got an answer to this already (someplace else), but the way to do that from a browser is:
ftp://username@<ftp address>
where <ftp address:> is the IP address or DN (like ftp.myftpserver.xxx or www.mydomainname.xxx>. The browser should prompt for a password in order to log in. I also think there is a way to include the password in the URL, but forget how to do it exactly.
Robert Templeton
i would make a new thread for this question but for some reason i dont have acces...
how do i make files outside of the home directory? i have two hard drives and i want to make all my music available by ftp. my music is all located on the slave drive, how can i access those files on the slaves drive via ftp?
how do i make files outside of the home directory? i have two hard drives and i want to make all my music available by ftp. my music is all located on the slave drive, how can i access those files on the slaves drive via ftp?
You do this by making a symbolic link to the drives you want. a symboli link is like an alias but it cannot be seen within the mac interface but it can when you use a browser or from windows.
To make a symbolic link you have to use the terminal.
When you open terminal, the directory you are in is your home directory. that means that when you create a link to another directory/file, that link will sit in you homedir.
type:
ln -s /volumes/yourharddrivename
or... if you have used spaces in the harddirve name:
ln -s "/volumes/your hard drive name" (within perenthesis)
that's it...you have created the link and when you connect through ftp, html or windows to your home directory, you will see the disk you want as a directory.
Now, in terminal, if you give the command
ls -al
you will see all files that sit in your homedir. So you will see the link like this:
(as a matter of fact you will see a lot more lines here but I only show the first three and the line that really matters)
this link will tell you that in this case data_2 links to /volumes/data_2
To make a symbolic link you have to use the terminal.
When you open terminal, the directory you are in is your home directory. that means that when you create a link to another directory/file, that link will sit in you homedir.
type:
ln -s /volumes/yourharddrivename
or... if you have used spaces in the harddirve name:
ln -s "/volumes/your hard drive name" (within perenthesis)
that's it...you have created the link and when you connect through ftp, html or windows to your home directory, you will see the disk you want as a directory.
Now, in terminal, if you give the command
ls -al
you will see all files that sit in your homedir. So you will see the link like this:
Code:
[woodstox:~] eric% ln -s /volumes/data_2
[woodstox:~] eric% ls -al
total 22
...
lrwxr-xr-x 1 eric unknown 15 Dec 6 00:58 data_2 -> /volumes/data_2
...(as a matter of fact you will see a lot more lines here but I only show the first three and the line that really matters)
this link will tell you that in this case data_2 links to /volumes/data_2
coolgrafix
Registered
Swizcore mentioned:
"7. Johnny can now access your system via any FTP protocol. But with this setup he only has access to his user directory-which should be fine for most users just wanting to share files."
But this isn't the case. Sure, Johnny will start his FTP session in his home directory, but nothing prevents him from browsing the whole bloody hard drive.
With 10.2.3 using lukemftpd, things have changed a bit. There no longer seems to be a way to trap the user in a directory with the ftpchroot method, as evidence by the meriad of posts in other threads. FYI.
"7. Johnny can now access your system via any FTP protocol. But with this setup he only has access to his user directory-which should be fine for most users just wanting to share files."
But this isn't the case. Sure, Johnny will start his FTP session in his home directory, but nothing prevents him from browsing the whole bloody hard drive.
With 10.2.3 using lukemftpd, things have changed a bit. There no longer seems to be a way to trap the user in a directory with the ftpchroot method, as evidence by the meriad of posts in other threads. FYI.
That' s the way to do it from a browser:
ftp://username: password@ ftp_address: port/path
username, password, port, path may be excluded. No spaces (just to get around smiley problems)
Check this link:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/ftpurl.html
If you can't do it, than something is wrong with your browser ftp access, not the semantics.
ftp://username: password@ ftp_address: port/path
username, password, port, path may be excluded. No spaces (just to get around smiley problems)
Check this link:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/ftpurl.html
If you can't do it, than something is wrong with your browser ftp access, not the semantics.
SouthOfHeaven
Registered
Ok, I think I've followed every instruction. There's a slight problem however
even though I log in as "the other user" (not Admin), I can still see ALL files on my computer, not only the "other users" files. Is it because I'm trying it from my OWN Mac, logged in as Admin or what? I only want the people who logs in to see what I want them to see!!!
gatorparrots
~departed~
What you want is called chrooting.
You will either have to fix the built-in FTP daemon or replace it altogether in order to obtain that functionality, as it is broken in 10.2.x (unless someone can confirm that it was otherwise fixed with the 10.2.3 update).
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25129
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12942
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22849
You will either have to fix the built-in FTP daemon or replace it altogether in order to obtain that functionality, as it is broken in 10.2.x (unless someone can confirm that it was otherwise fixed with the 10.2.3 update).
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25129
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12942
http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22849