01-23-2007, 08:15 AM

How do I set up my Mac as a ftp server. I'm connected to a router, so the details given at the bottom of the services pane in the system prefs are what are given by the router. Been looking round the web and there's talk of ports but I'm not sure where to go now.
Be gentle with me! I'm experienced enough on Macs but I need your help on this one.

01-23-2007, 10:31 AM

First of all, you need a good FTP server software package. I understand that Mac OS X comes with one, but I have never looked into it. Instead, I would strongly recommend PureFTPdManager (http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/pureftpd). This is an excellent and widely used open source FTP server with a nice Mac GUI wrapped around it. The PureFTPdManager package includes both the GUI and the server itself, although that may not be obvious right away.

Once you have this up and running, you do need to allow access through your firewall. FTP uses port 21, so if you allow FTP Access on your System Preferences, Sharing panel, you will have opened that port. I am not sure if it is needed or not, but I also went to the Firewall tab and used the Advanced button to create a specific rule opening Port 21 for PureFTPd.

After that, you MAY have an issue with your router, if it routinely blocks unsolicited traffic. You will need to access its configuration page and open Port 21 as well. If you have one of the ubiquitous Linksys routers (and in fact most other do this as well), the router page will be at local IP address 192.168.1.1. It does require a userid and password. For Linksys, the defaults are to leave the userid field blank, and type the word "admin" in to the password field.

With that, you should have a working FTP server!