Recently I had a client that wanted to allow multiple users from different locations to log into an ftp server and show the same folder and only that folder. The folder name is Upload.
I chose a GNU/Linux setup using CentOS as the operating system and VSFTP as the FTP server.
I set this up so that the customer has the ability to host there website on the server in the future if they choose to do so.
The server is leased through Godaddy.
The domain was created using the Simple Control Panel that Godaddy provides. This creates the group, the home directory, and website directory.
Using the customer as the group name I added the FTP users to the group and made their home directory the FTP share. This allows access, updating of files, but keeps them locked down inside the folder or share.
I do not like the Simple Control Panel to create users so from the command line I create the users.
Example:
useradd -d /home/path_to_web_share/upload -g customer_group customer_user_id
I then tested the ability for each user to add, modify, and delete their files and other users’ files.
You may be asking why do they want to do this? Sure seems like FTP is a cumbersome solution to sharing files.
In Windows you can map an FTP share as a drive with a letter and save the login information, so the user can access the share like they would their C: drive or My Documents folder.
So this is how I resolved this customer’s request.
But if you know of a better way then please reply and let us know.
