FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network such as the Internet or local area network. By creating a FTP server, you can easily share files on your system with your friends and allows them to upload files to your system too. In this post, I will show you on how to create a FTP server on Windows and creating a hostname for your IP, which is easier to remember especially if you are using dynamic IP address.

Set Up the FTP Server

1. In this post, I will use the FileZilla FTP server. FileZilla Server is a free and open source FTP server for Windows. Download and run the FileZilla Server installer.

2. Installing FileZilla Server

2a. Select 'I Agree' (1) to move to the next screen.

2b. Select the options that you want to install. We don't need to install the source code, so unselect it. Press 'Next' (2) to proceed to the next screen.

2c. Select the location where you want to install FileZilla Server (3) and press 'Next' (4).

2d. If you want FileZilla Server to start automatically when Windows starts, choose 'Install as service, started with Windows' (5). If you prefer to manually start FileZilla Server, choose 'Install as service, started manually'. Unselect 'Start Server after setup completes' (6). Press 'Next' (7).

2e. On the next screen, choose 'Start if user logs on, apply to all users' if you want the FileZilla Server Interface to start automatically when user logs on. If you want to manually starts the FileZilla Server Interface, choose 'Start manually' (8). Unselect 'Start Interface after setup completes' (9). Press 'Install' (10) to begin the installation process.

3. To start FileZilla Server, go to Start > FileZilla Server > Start FileZilla Server (11). FileZilla Server will run in the background. After that, start the FileZilla Server Interface.

4. In the 'Connect to Server' dialog, just press 'OK' (12) to connect to the local FileZilla Server. Select 'Always connect to this server' (13) to make the server interface to automatically connect to the local server when it starts.

5. To add a user, go to Edit > Users in FileZilla Server Interface. Press 'Add' (14) to add a user. Enter a username for the account (15). Press 'OK' (16) to create the account. You can add multiple username.

6. To set a password for the account, select the account name (17), select 'Password' (18) and enter the password in the text box.

7. Sharing folders

7a. First of all, we need to add a 'Home' folder. This 'Home' folder will be the folder the users see when they log in to the ftp server. Select 'Shared Folders' (19) on the left. Click 'Add' (20) to add a folder. Select the folder or drive that you want to set as the 'Home' folder. In this post, I will use Drive D: as the 'Home' folder. Press 'OK' (21) to add the 'Home' folder.

7b. Home folder will be marked with 'H' icon (22). Select the permission for the user for the folder (23). Press 'OK' (24) to save the configuration.

8. You can also set a directory alias for folder that outside of your 'Home' directory. For example, my 'Home' directory is D: and I also want to share by E: drive. To add a directory alias, first you need to add the folder to 'Shared folders' list. Then, double click the aliases area (25). Enter the full local path for the alias, for example D:\DRIVE_E\. The content of E: will be shown in D:\DRIVE_E\ folder.

9. Your FTP server is now up and running. You can test it by going to ftp://localhost. You can always play with FileZilla Server configuration to customize the server. Some configurations that you can change:
- Global speed limit or per username
- IP filter
- Connection limit (global or per username)
- Server welcome message
- File transfer compression
- SSL support

- Autoban if an IP failed to provide correct login info

Configuring hostname for your IP

1. If you are planning to share the files on your local network, you can skip this step. The local users can browse your FTP server by going to ftp://<your computer local IP address> or ftp://<your computer name>. For example, ftp://192.168.1.3 or ftp://myhomepc. People can access your FTP server by going to ftp://<your public IP address> but IP address is hard to remember especially a dynamic IP. There are free services available so you can set a hostname for your IP, for example myprivateftpserver.myftp.org will point to your public IP address. In this post, I will use the free service from No-IP.com.

2. First, we need to create an account at No-IP.com. After you verified your account, proceed by login in to No-IP.com. Go to Hosts/Redirects > Add Host (26).

3. Choose your subdomain name (27). Then, select the domain name from the No-IP Free Domain list (28). For example, I choose whiztech for my subdomain, and myftp.org. My hostname will be whiztech.myftp.org. The IP address in the IP address field will be your current IP address (29). Click 'Create Host' (30) to create the hostname.

4. Next, download the No-IP's Dynamic DNS Update Client, install and run it. Enter your No-IP.com login info (31).

5. Select the hostname that you registered earlier (32). Click the options to proceed (33).

6. Select 'Run as system service' (34) if you want the DNS client to auto start when Windows starts. Press 'OK' (35) to save the configuration.

Now you have successfully create your own FTP server! Now you can share your files with your friend, or access your files from your home PC everywhere that have internet connection. Your friends can access the server from ftp://<the No-IP hostname address that you created before>, in my case, ftp://whiztech.myftp.org. I recommend you to use FileZilla FTP Client to access FTP servers. It is free, open source, powerful and full with features.

Note: If you behind firewall or router, you shoult port forward port 21 or make FileZilla Server to be able to listen on port 21.

Feel free to comments or ask the part that you don't understand! =)

Links

FileZilla Server

No-IP.com