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Creating an FTP server on your Windows Home Server can prove to be very advantageous. There are many times when using the web interface just doesn’t seem practical. Also, you are no longer limited to how many people have the ability to upload and download from your WHS.
Having an FTP server on WHS can also allow syncrinization of files betwurleen off site computers and WHS while giving greater flexibility. I am personally displeased with the lack of a download monitor for WHS while using the web page and therefore the setup of an FTP was necessary for me.
First, I chose FileZilla because it is simple to setup, easy to maintain, and FREE. There is also more security in FileZilla than the included (but not installed) IIS FTP server. FileZilla supports FTP as well as FTPS using Explicit SSL/TLS. I am not going to explain setting up the latter, but the simpler FTP.
All work will be done from the WHS desktop. So initiate a Remote Desktop Connection to your server to being working.
- Download FileZilla FTP Server: Click Here to Visit Download Page
- Install with ALL of the Default Options
- Create a directory in the root of your C drive called FTPUsers
After the install has completed, the installation will execute the Connect to Server application. You have not currently set an administrative password so simply pressing OK will take you to the FileZilla Interface.
To start the process of configuring your FTP server click the Edit option on the upper menu and select Settings.
In the tree on the left, select Passive Mode Settings
- Select the Radio button for “Use the Following IP” and populate the field with your WHS given URL. (be sure not to include http or https in the url – xxxx.homeserver.com)
- Check the box for “Use Custom Port Range” and use the following port range 50000 – 50100 (ignore picture below)
- Press OK and the settings will be applied
After applying the simple settings for getting your FTP up and running it is time to create a group to add your FTP users too. I usually create a group for family and a group for friends. The family group is allowed to write, create, delete, etc. and the friends group is simply allowed to read. To accomplish this, click on the Edit option in the main FileZilla Console and choose the option for groups.
- Select General from the left side menu.
- Press add on the right side to create a group and title it whatever you want.
I have set up a FileZilla FTP server on my HP Windows Home Server per the instructions given here but get a timeout when I try to connect via a FileZilla FTP client. A buddy of mine gets a timeout, too, when trying to access my FTP server from outside. In troubleshooting, I confirmed that port 21 is open on my network by using the port check tool available here: http://www.canyouseeme.org/ – in fact, my FTP server responds to that test, showing that a connection was made, then disconnected. Testing port 50000 gave an error, though. I don’t understand why that would be the case since I forwarded ports 21 and 50000 – 50100 in my Verizon router’s firewall settings. I don’t know what else to try to fix this. Any ideas? TIA.
As someone stated in one of the other comments, Media Smart servers now have software on them that uses port 21… try a different port for the FTP server and see what happens.
Thanks for your reply. I had looked through other folks’ comments – must have missed that one – sorry. I just tried ports 20, 23, and 30 but still get the timeout trying to connect. I’m uncertain what ports to try. Is there some way to tell which ports are available to try on the home server?
I am still puzzled, too, as to why my ftp server responds to connection attempts from CanYouSeeMe.org but will not respond to my FileZilla client.
Try setting your Filezilla client to passive. It may be set to Port. If it is set to passive currently try PORT… verizon routers are goofy.
I tried various settings in my client, including what you suggested, with no luck. Still getting timeouts trying to connect to the server. I think I’m gonna have to give up on this for now and move on, but thanks for your advice.
I followed this tutorial over a year ago with success. However, after updateing my MediaSmart server to the latest version 3 release I found it would not collect files from clients. Days of investigation yielded that the Mediasmart 3 software uses ftp on IIS and when you install Filezilla it tries to use the same port. Long story short…..if you want to run this on a newer Mediasmart server (or software version), you need to change the port number to something other than 21 or it will interfere with other things.
Hi, I am trying to install this FTP software on my WHS system and every time i try to download it the download gets canceled, if i download the software on another system then transfer it to the WHS system every time i try to execute the file i get an error indicating i do not have permission … and i am the administrator ..??
What am i doing wrong?
THX
Just FYI, if you need to access the FTP server from within the same network, use the internal IP of your WHS as the hostname i.e. 192.168.1.21 . I ran into ‘no data connection’ errors when trying to use the outside ‘homeserver.com address from wihtin my LAN.