Can someone help me ue my ftp server

Question

   Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone out there has any experience using the built in ftp server.  Heres what I would like to be able to accomplish and everytime I've tried in the past using it I fail. K, All I want woudl be to say, set up a file / folder that friends or say another person can download from my computer.   Does this mean I have set up a new user account?  Is the ftp server only usable for over local network, like in my house with other connected macs or windows. Can outside people access it or even myself from another computer.   One more thing, I use DSL which has a firewall. I've open the ports for the main things I use. However how will this affect ftp server and how would this affect logging in.   Hope to hear form someone.
Nathan

Answer 1

In the sharing system preferences you can designate folders that can be accessed by FTP. When you're presented with a login/password request, entering your account password will give you access to all drives and folders to which you already have permission to access (basically, everything on your computer). If you do not provide a login name, the server will present only those folders that are accessible by "everyone" (you can set this in the permissions next to the shared folders you designate in the "Sharing" control panel).
The guest user is the user that's enabled when folks dont enter a password. This allows "everyone" to view folders you designate as "public" (by giving view access to "everyone" as I mentioned above). This user cannot log into the computer, but instead is reserved for network or remote access.
Anyone can connect to your computer with FTP (if they know the ip address) once it's enable, but only you will have access to everything on your computer. If someone enters an incorrect login name it will either refuse them or only give them "guest" access, which is restricted to the shared folders you designate as viewable by "everyone".
If you want guests such as your friends to be able to access files, just put the files in the guest-accessible folders such as the "Public" folder in your home directory. This folder by default is a guest-readable (only read...they cannot write to it) directory that's set up in the system preferences as such for FTP/AFP server access.