How to setup FTP server in Windows?

Introduction

In this lesson we will learn how to setup FTP server in Windows operating system.

What is FTP Server?

File Transfer Protocol(FTP) is a protocol used to transfer files between computers in a network. FTP server is usually required when you want to share files with other users or when you need to backup your files to a remote location. FTP server is a software running on a computer/server that hosts those files and makes it possible to copy them to/from the server.

FileZilla FTP server

FileZilla server is one of the most popular FTP servers out there. Go to their official website and download FileZilla Server for Windows. Install the application and leave all the settings unchanged during the installation process. FileZilla FTP Server will be installed as a service and run every time you power on your PC.

FileZilla FTP server  settings

Once you have finished the installation you will see a window as shown on the picture below. If it does not appear just double click the FileZilla server icon on your desktop. Click Connect.

After you connect to the FileZilla server you will see a window like on the picture below:

Now there are two main thing we need to do to make our server work:

1. Create an FTP user (people will connect to our server using username /password)
2. Create a folder and assign that folder to our user (after remote user connects to the server, FTP server has to know where to store that user’s files)

Let’s create a user first. Go to Edit->Users, create a user and assign a password for him. Use the picture below for the reference. I have created a user name orkhans and entered its password in a corresponding field.

Now click Shared Folders  on the left and add a folder for this user. This will be our user’s directory and he will have access to it. Make sure that the user has necessary permissions to that folder. When you finish click OK.

Now your FileZilla server is up and running. It is listening on a default port 21 which is common for FTP protocol.

Conclusion

In this lesson we learned how to install and configure Filezilla FTP server in Windows OS.

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