Serving Files with FTP

Code listing 5.7. Activating FTP support on Fedora Core.

 [chrish@dhcppc1 ~]$ cd /etc/xinetd.d [chrish@dhcppc1 xinetd.d]$ sudo vi gssftp . . . [chrish@dhcppc1 xinetd.d]$ ps ax | egrep  xinetd  2032 ?        Ss     0:00 xinetd -stayalive  -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid 20162 pts/2    S+     0:00 egrep xinetd [chrish@dhcppc1 xinetd.d]$ sudo kill HUP  2032 

FTP was, until the advent of the World Wide Web, the most popular method of transferring files across the Internet.

Like Telnet, FTP is insecure; the user ID and password are sent across the network in plain text. We'll look at a secure replacement for FTP access when we talk about OpenSSH later in this chapter.

Also as with Telnet, the user ID and password you use to access the FTP server are the same user ID and password you use for logging in to the system.

Code listing 5.8. Activating FTP support on Mac OS X.

 bender:~ chrish$ cd /etc/xinetd.d bender:/etc/xinetd.d chrish$ sudo vi ftp Password: . . . bender:/etc/xinetd.d chrish$ sudo kill -HUP  $(cat /var/run/xinetd.pid) 

To enable FTP access (xinetd)

Fedora Core and Mac OS X use the xinetd super-server to control FTP access.

1.	cd /etc/xinetd.d Change to the xinetd configuration directory.
2.	If you're using Fedora Core (Code Listing 5.7), Kerberos (a secure authentication service) is installed, and it handles normal FTP connections. Edit the gssftp file using your favorite editor. If you're using Mac OS X (Code List ing5.8 ), the standard BSD FTP daemon handles your FTP connections. Edit the ftp file using your favorite text editor.
3.	Change the disable=yes line to disable=no, then save the file.
4.	kill -HUP xinetd_pid Restart xinetd by sending it a HUP signal.

To enable FTP access (inetd)

FreeBSD and Cygwin use the inetd super-server to control FTP access.

1.	cd /etc Change to the inetd configuration directory.
2.	Use your favorite text editor to edit the inetd.conf file.
3.	Remove the # character(s) at the start of the ftp line (make sure you've got the ftp line and not the tftp linethat's something different), then save the file.
4.	kill HUP inetd_pid Restart inetd by sending it a HUP signal.