[PLUG] FTP server question

[Bill Barry]

On 9/19/07, Robert Kopp <iconoklastic at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm not quite sure what I'm getting into. I'd like to serve files to a few friends, files that are too large to send as file attachments. So it seems to me that an FTP server might be the way to go:
>
> >sudo apt-get install proftpd
>
> But I'm not quite done yet. The host computer gets an IP address from a router (it's on a LAN), and the router gets its address by DHCP from the ISP. Leases can last a long time; but this probably complicates DNS resolution. Can someone give me advice on how to proceed? Do I need to change the TOPOLOGY?
>

The first thing you will need to do is tell your router to forward any
traffic going to ftp port 21 to the internal address of the host
computer. On my Linksys router this is called Port Range Forward and
is under Applications and Gaming. Most routers have this ability, but
they all call it something slightly different.

To handle the DNS problem you could use a service like dyndns.com
See http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/ for how to set this up.
There are linux clients for updating the DNS server when your ip
changes ( apt-cache search dyndns).

Running servers on your machine can create security problems. Be careful.

If you want to outsource this to someone else's server you can use
something like
http://www.xdrive.com/

Bill Barry