How to Setup a Secure FTP Server with Cerberus FTP Server
FTP is an application protocol that uses the Internet to allow users to easily transfer files between computers. FTP is commonly used to transfer data reliably and efficiently, whether it is downloading programs and other files to your computer from your favorite shareware site or securely sharing company files between two remote offices.
Setting up an FTP server will allow you to host and share files with virtually anyone, anywhere in the world. This tutorial will walk you through the basic steps of downloading, installing, and configuring Cerberus FTP Server. In addition to standard FTP, Cerberus can also secure your connections with encrypted SFTP or FTPS.
- Part 1: Downloading and Installing Cerberus FTP Server
- Part 2: Configuring your FTP server
- Part 3: Make your FTP server accessible from the Internet
Part 1: Downloading and Installing Cerberus FTP Server
Close all other programs (recommended) before installing Cerberus FTP Server and make sure that you install it logged in as Administrator or a member of the Administrators group if you are installing it on a Windows NT or higher system.
- Download the Latest Cerberus FTP Server installer
- Double click or run the CerberusInstall.exe self-extracting installer. You may be prompted "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer" click "Yes" (or "Allow"). Clicking "Yes" will give the Cerberus FTP Server Installer Administrator privileges to install (required on most operating systems).
Windows 7 UAC Prompt for granting installation privileges - You will see the "Welcome to the Cerberus FTP Server Setup" screen. Click Next.
- Agree to the licensing agreement to continue. Select the "I agree" button and click Next.
- Select an installation folder. Or keep the default path. Click Next.
- Confirm your settings and click Next to complete the install.
- Click Finish.
Part 2: Configuring your FTP server
Step 1 - Licensing
The Getting Started Wizard will appear when Cerberus starts up for the first time. The initial screen will allow the user to select the licensing option most appropriate for their intended use of Cerberus. Selecting the "Personal use" option immediately causes Cerberus to function as the Personal edition. This means that the message "For personal use only" and "UNREGISTERED" will appear in the welcome message that Cerberus sends every time a client connects. In all other respects, Cerberus FTP Server Personal edition is functionally equivalent to the registered version.
Selecting "For-profit entity" enables a 30 day trial period of the Professional version of Cerberus FTP Server,under which no message is added to the welcome greeting and all of the Professional edition features are enabled. If Cerberus is not registered before the evaluation period, Cerberus reverts to the Personal edition after the evaluation period expires. At anytime, including after the trial period has expired or if "For personal use" was selected at startup, Cerberus may be turned into the full commercial Personal, Standard, or Professional edition by entering a valid registration code into the License Manager.
Step 2 - Initial User Creation
By default, an anonymous user will be created under the User Manager. The default anonymous user will have download and upload-only access to the "c:\ftproot" directory as their root drive. This directory will be created if it does not already exist. Leaving the defaults checked creates the standard anonymous user for Cerberus FTP Server. Please note, the default settings for the anonymous user allow anyone to connect to your FTP server, without specifying a password. Using the default settings, anyone can view and download any file from your "C:\ftproot" directory and any subdirectories of of that directory. To disallow anonymous access to Cerberus FTP Server, uncheck the "Create Initial user" box and the anonymous user will not be added.
To further customize the added user, or to manage additional users, go to the User Manager after the "Getting Started" wizard has finished.
Step 3 - Network Setup
The Network Setup screen detects basic network settings and tries to provide advice on any settings changes that need to be made because of the computer's network configuration.
A dialog prompt will ask whether you want to automatically attempt to detect your public IP address. The public IP or external IP address is the IP address you present to the Internet. This is often a different IP address than you have on your local computer and the external IP address is usually assigned to your router. You should normally say yes here. This will instruct Cerberus to automatically attempt to use the correct external IP address when clients attempt passive FTP connections.
Step 4 - Security
Cerberus FTP Server fully supports explicit TLSv1/SSLv3 encryption over FTP (Please note, this is not the same as Secure SSH FTP or SFTP). To enable TLS/SSL support, a certificate must be generated for the server. The Self-Signed Certificate creation process will provide a certificate that Cerberus can use to allow secure connections and file transfers.
Make sure the Enable TLS/SSL check box is checked and the Self Signed Certificate information is filled out, and then press the finish button. A dialog box will popup indicating that a certificate was successfully created. Cerberus can now accept secure SSL connections from compatible FTP clients.
Part 3: Make your FTP server accessible from the Internet
Depending upon your connection to the Internet, you may need to configure your router or firewall before users outside of your local network can see your FTP server. Communication with an FTP server is done through two connections, a control connection and a data connection. Ensuring these connections can be established are the two areas where special attention is usually needed.
Addresses that begin with 192.168, or 10.0, or 172.16 are called private addresses. These addresses are only used for traffic on your local LAN and are invisible to users outside of your local network. External users to your network can usually only see your router's IP address. To allow people to connect to your server from the Internet, your router has to be configured to forward FTP traffic to the machine running Cerberus FTP Server. This process is called Port Forwarding. While the exact procedure is depended on your router, there are generally three steps that need to be completed to connect to Cerberus from the Internet.
- Forward the port Cerberus FTP Server is listening on (the default is 21) to the machine running Cerberus. NOTE: For SFTP the default port is 22 and will also need to be forwarded.
- Forward the passive ports range from the router to the machine Cerberus FTP Server is listening on. The range is configurable and can be found on the 'Advanced' tab of the Server Manager.
Below is the Advanced tab of the Server Manager. From here you can select the ports that Cerberus will use for passive connections.
Selecting the PASV port rangeBelow is an example of port forwarding in a popular router. The same passive ports specified in the Advanced tab of the server manager need to be specified here.
Port Forwarding example on a router
The above router is configured to forward requests on port 21 and from ports 11000 through 12000 from outside the local network (usually from the Internet for a home network) to the local machine at IP address 192.168.1.108. Any requests on those ports from the Internet will be forwarded to machine 192.168.1.108.
- Enable Detect WAN IP at Startup from the 'General' tab of the server manager.
Selecting detect WAN IP
That's it! Your server should now be completely configured and accessible to the outside world. The next step is opening up the User Manager and adding users and setting up virtual folder permissions.