Using FTP client securely

I downloaded a free FPT client (Smart FTP). It automatically made my user ID and password the same as those of my ISP/e-mail. Nowhere in the help files does it give instrux for changing the user ID. If I paid for an FTP client, would I be able to use it more securely? (I need to allow others to download Word files that I've uploaded, and I don't want to allow anonymous users.) Thanks!

(I have XP Pro and a cable connection.)

Anne

 

you lost me.

I use SmartFTP routinely and changing the username to an FTP is as simple as clicking in the box and typing a new one.

 

Mr K is right, Anne. Your post leaves us confused.

1. You don't need a password to run your FTP program as a server. Other people need a password to get into your server to get files (unless you admit anonymous users, which you won't do). You should be able to set up the password and username for anyone who wants to get files from your computer (running as a server) in the FTP program menus. You should also be able to designate one folder ONLY as accessible on your machine, so that the legitimate user can only get files from that folder or put files INTO that folder.

2. You need a password and username (provided by your ISP/e-mail server) to UPload files to your ISP's server. That password-username may automatically be the same as the one you use to log in and check your e-mail.

3. If your ISP gives you free use of space on their server (and almost all of them do), all you need to do is get the address for accessing your space and the address for UPloading files to it from your ISP. Then you won't NEED to run your computer as a server or worry about the security of your computer. You just UPload files temporarily (using your FTP program, and following your ISP's instructions) to your ISP's server, then send the other person (client or whatever) the address of the file in an e-mail message. If you type the address as a live link in an e-mail message, all the client has to do is click on it and his browser will download the file from your ISP's server without passwords or usernames involved.

F'rinstance, I could (using my FTP program) upload a file (a zipped doc file, for instance) to my Web space and call it Anne.zip, and then send you a message telling you that if you click this link, you'll get the file:

http://mywebspaceaddress.com/Anne.zip.

When you had the file, you'd e-mail me that you had it, and I'd delete it from the ISP server (using my FTP program). Nobody else would know the address, and it would only temporarily work, so the security is extremely high. The chance that someone else would guess that filename at that exact address at the right time and steal a copy of the file is WAY smaller than the chance that you'll win the lottery tomorrow.

4. If you want to use YOUR computer as a server, instead of using your ISP's server, you don't upload anything. You just run the FTP server program, put the file into a folder on your machine, set up the FTP so that the user can only get into THAT folder and only with a password and username. Then send the client the password and username in an e-mail message, along with YOUR IP ADDRESS, and as soon as the client has logged into your machine and downloaded the file from your machine, you shut down the FTP server. There's no point in running your machine as a server when nobody is going to use it (except crooks who'll try to break in to it).

5. Some people here (at MG) run a spare computer as a file server all the time. You don't need to do that.

6. It IS possible to use your ISP as server and get a folder set up that can only be accessed by you or you client with a password and username, but your ISP is unlikely to be willing to let you change the password and username for every file for every client, so that's a poor method. THAT would involve giving out a worrisome piece of infomation to the client: the password and username that anybody could use to get files from or put files IN that folder on the ISP's server.

Sounds as though you just need to explore your FTP utility more carefully and contact your ISP about using space for file storage (if you don't already have a Web site on your ISP's server). If you have a Web site, you know how to upload files to it already, and you can create an accessible folder on it that your client can get his file from -- with instructions from your ISP.