Does any one know a good ftp server program for Windows XP? I was thinking about buying a linksys network harddrive that has its own ftp server software, and would act as an ftp server, but it is too expensive. Main features that i am looking for is:
1, i am trying to share my family photos to my grandparents
2. i need some type of username, pasword auth. system
and that is about it...

There are probably much better solutions to that problem than a special hard drive with and ftp server. I can probably suggest something better, but I need a few more specifics:

1. Do they need to be able to access it over the public internet or just over the local network (your home network).

2. Are they very computer savy, or would it be better if they could just access the photos through the web browser?

3. How much do you want to spend?

4. Would you feel comfortable assembling a server yourself?

1. public internet
2. not computer savy what so ever, they need to be able to acess it through a web browser, preferably if it were something like a network drive
3. I have no idea, i just saw that that machine was $1000 and i did not want to spend that much, i want to run it off of this computer
4. you mean physically building it? Yes of course, i have built and currently maintain all 10 computers in my house, and i have set up my own wireless network to share the cable modem

Doesnt windows xp pro have the ability to act as a server built in the os?

In that case I don't think the linksys network drive is what you want. The easiest thing for you to do would be to set up a small webserver on one of your computers and just put the images into the document root for the server. Windows has that personal webserver thing, but I'd suggest using apache http server for security reasons. You can password protect the images using http basic authentication. It's pretty easy to get running.

Apache web server
HTTP basic authentication

ok, ill try that, but i have looked at apache before, did i mention that i know absolutely nothing about HTTP or any other type of web programing. Im looking for a graphical interface, and something that is really easy.

I'm using Serv-U or Bullet Proof FTP server... They both working good, and really easy to use.

By the way, you could download both versions (cracked) (so, now you don't have to buy and it ain't cost you anything) from my ftp-sever...
The only thing is, it's illage, but what the hell ;)
If you want the pogram's, plz pm me and I'll give you an account to my server...

well i dont want to to anything illegal

all i know is that i need a graphical interface

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http://download.com.com/3000-2160-10161816.html?tag=lst-0-1
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If you want something like a network drive and they are not computer savy then FTP is not what you want. The http solution that I mentioned would require no programming, so I don't really see the problem with it.

With Apache I thought you had to have your own web server? My cousin was checking Apache out and he had the server running and everything, but it was local. How would you make it available to more then just local? (this is somewhat off-topic, sorry)

Apache _IS_ a webserver. To let other people access the server you just have to know your computer's ip address or domain name. Then just have the person type http://your.computer's.name.com/ into a web browser and it should work.

ok, well what i mean is go to For example: ftp://ftp.linksys.com see how you look through the site as if it were another harddrive? im using IE6 by the way, that is all i want, ok well i guess i will have to read more about caedes's http solution....

The document structure trom an http server would look the exact same. It's just easier to configure, and easier for the non-tech people imo.

I guess the only question i have now is, is that all i need? oh and about accessing the webpage from a dif, non local computer, on my computer (the server) i am connected to a wireless router/switch, with DHCP that has assigned my computer with an IP address, therefore my modem has an ip address (65.bla.bla.bla) and my computer itself has an ip address of (192.168.1.1) assigned by the DHCP will i run into problems with this? And if i were to go to a public computer how would i address my web page, woul i use:

"http://mycablemodem'sipaddress/mycomputer'sipaddress/whateverinamedmyserver.com"
or

"http://mycablemodem'sipaddress/whateverinamedmyserver.com"

when you install apache 2.0 it asks what you want to name your server, so i would use that name i guess....

Well that's a whole different problem. You'll probably have to configure your wireless router or gateway to pass all http traffic to the server. Without that the server won't be able to get any requests from the outside since it doesn't have a universal ip address.

ok well i thinks that i have got the site operational, but........
Is there a way i can get a website name instead of an ip address? like
"www.sherpaspics.com"? instead of my ip address

bump

Ok i have run into another problem.... Caedes, you said to put the images in the root directory, well i put a test image in there and it does not show up on the webpage, do i have to address it in html?, I need to post several folders of pictures, (over 5 GB), and i need some way to show them....

Also, how do i block an ip address from accessing my webpage, aka ban them....

Here's an example of what I've been talking about: http://www.caedes.net/private/temp. Use the username "asdf" and password "asdfasdf" to access the directory. I've put two files in the document root called .htaccess and .htpasswd. These make the password authentication work. Here's what's in the files.

.htaccess
###############
DirectoryIndex index.html
Options Indexes
AuthUserFile /home/caedes/public_html/private/temp/.htpasswd
AuthName asdf
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>
###############

.htpasswd
###############
asdf:spR3.DdamqRQE
###############

yes, that is the type of auth that i want, that looks good.....
but is it in those files that the users list is stored, and the user's password?

and i looked at the source of that webpage to see how to do the links, so all i have to do is put the images in the Document root folder, then address them as an A href? How do i address the different folders? I will have to study that Html file somne more.

how do they log out? or is this possible?

and is there a way i can put thumbnails of the pics instead of the links?

The whole point of doing this is that the webserver will automatically make the webpage for you. It's just a simple directory structure listing. If you want to do thumbnails and such then your going to have to do something more complex like a cgi script.

*nevermind*

oh i see, i did it...

errrr, ok i got the .htacces file in the root direc, and it does not work, it shows up as a file and the page does not get a little popup

EDIT:


ok i have the two files. i used the HTPASSWD utility, following the instructions on their website. My document root is C:\webdocs

this is the file called ".htaccess"

AuthType Basic
AuthName "By Invitation Only"
AuthUserFile C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\passwords
Require user david

ok the other file is called "passwords" and was created by the htpasswd utility and is in the file C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\:

david:$apr1$dx4.....$cP0uO2t2NG/oFyt7bMfbi.


ok now i put the file called ".htaccess" in the document root (c:\webdocs)
next i restarted the apache server service
i went to the webpage, and nothing happened, it listed all the files in the doccument root folder, there was no password prompt or username prompt, i do not understand what i did wrong, i even went into the httpd.conf (the appache config file) and checked to make sure that the HTACCESS file would be recognized as a file called ".htaccess" and it was. so i dont know what is going on, but i am slightly frustrated!!! >:-()

EDIT2 8:30pm:


OK finally i got the darn window to popup when i go to the webpage (by setting the AllowOverride directive of the httpd.conf file for apache to ALL instead of NONE), but now i cannot make it accept my user name that i set up. i think it has something to do with the fact that i am using windows. I read about the ".HTACCESS" file and the AuthUserFile directive command, this is where i noticed that the instructions that Caedes gave me were for linux, and the older vers of apache ( i think) so i went to the apache webpage and looked up in the docs section, and looked for the How-Tos for the Auth files in Apache version 2.0 well i found them and noticed that the two sets of instructions were about the same. OK so i read about the AuthUserFile directive and found that it says:

<i> "File-path is the path to the user file. If it is not absolute (i.e., if it doesn't begin with a slash), it is treated as relative to the ServerRoot."
</i> ok so i did not know what the ServerRoot was so i looked it up the serverroot is:

<i> "The ServerRoot directive sets the directory in which the server lives. Typically it will contain the subdirectories conf/ and logs/. Relative paths for other configuration files are taken as relative to this directory.


Example
ServerRoot /home/httpd

"</i>
ok now here is where the problem lies. I believe that my socalled <i> ServerRoot</i> is C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\ because this is where the program was installed. So i concluded that the line in the .htaccess should be:

AuthUserFile \passwd\passwords

because i have a folder in my <i>ServerRoot</i> called passwd and the name of the file containind the password information is called passwords
finally i saved the .htaccess file in my DocumentRoot folder (c:\webdocs) and restarted the apache web services, when i reloaded my webpage, the little password box popped up like it was supposed to, so i typed my username in (noting that it was case sensitive) and my password, and i pressed enter, it did not log my on, and did not let me go to the page, instead the damn window popped up again, it did this 3 times and then said "AUTH REQUIRED......." so i do not know what is going on here please help me.......................................

I think the problem is that you used a backslash for the AuthUserFile name. Try using passwd/passwords (with a slash, not a back-slash).

OK so it should look like:

AuthUserFile passwd/passwords

ill try it like that, but i dont have todo anything like

AuthUserFile Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/passwd/passwords

when i tried doing it this way, i got "500 Internal Server Error Page" so i thinks that it atleast knows where the ServerRoot is.
Unless, Do i have to change anything in the httpd.conf file to make sure that it knows that the ServerRoot is at C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\ not at /usr/bin/apache like it suggests on their webpage as the default?

You might have to change something in httpd.conf. I'm not sure what the default is. Remember that if a path has a space in it you'll probably have to put it in quotes.

Oh really? I didnt know that, maybe that has been the problem all along.....

maybe i should also try

AuthUserFile "C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\passwd\passwords"

I think that would probably work.

Ok I finally got it to work!!!!!!!:-)

I could just kick my self though......

the problem was is that in the Httpd.conf file I set the "AllowUserOverride" directive (which allows htaccess files to be used or ignores) i set it to "ALL" instead of "All" yes thats right, 2 lowercase "L"'s have caused this entire problem..

Well, now that i have gotten rid of the problems, the only thing i want to know is, is there a way to name my website, instead of using an Ip address, use a name like www.sherpaspics.com... or something like that

and what if i wanted to make a file within the protected DocumentRoot for certain users only, like administrators, is that possible?

You have to go somewhere like domain monger and register one. It costs something like $15 a year.

oh well then never mind, but what i really want to do is make a folder within my DocumentRoot only accessable to certain users, like me, the administrator; and not accessable to other users, I dont think i can use another htaccess file because i tried to put one in the file i wanted protected, and it did not show up on the web page.

Yeah you can do that with http auth. You'll have to study that apache manual a bit though.

ok, i have read most of the manual, but ill keep looking, thanks for all the help!!!

A question: so I can set up a folder on my computer to be accessable to others over the interent if I set up a server and this folder in it? Also thanks Sherpa and Caedes for having this conversation, it helps answer a bunch of questions I've had about things =)

yeah

Caedes is the man!!!!!

Still having a problem with that wanting to let certain users into a directory but not others.... for example, on that webpage that you gave earlier in this discussion, im trying to make the folder with in the doc root folder only accessable to me, i have read the manual and it is pretty shady about this topic, im still looking though

I'm pretty sure that all you have to do is make a new thing like this:

<Location /newdir>
Require user grandma
</Location>

It might not be exactly correct since I just made it up, but it's close to what you'll need to do.

ya, i saw that somewhere ill look for it, it was something like that

ok, i have looked all over for something like that and i couldnt find it..... so i posted on www.linuxquestions.org (which by the way is a very good discussion forum) and asked if it were possible, one of the suggestions that i got was to make a virtual server outside the document root.... so im looking up now how to do that, thanks

You need a domain name to be able to use a virtual server.

ok...

CAEDES I GOT IT!!!!! i actually used a spawn of what you said to do i added this to my HTTPD.conf:

<Directory "The directory i wanted to be for my only within my DocumentRoot">
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Admin Only!"
AuthUserFile Location of my password file
Require user (my username)
</Directory>

and now if i log on with my username the file shows up, if i log on with another username, then the file doesnt even show up, its great. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELP....