Learn how to – How To add FTP Site on Windows Server 2019

Learn how to – How To add FTP Site on Windows Server 2019.

After we installed FTP Server in Install and Configure FTP Server on Windows Server 2019 guide, we shall continue to add an FTP Site so that we can begin transferring files and enjoy the FTP resource. Before proceeding with adding a new FTP Site, make sure you have a local user in your Server. In case you use Active Directory the configuration will be a bit different. On how to add a new user, follow How to add a local user to Windows Server 2019 guide. The guide uses the default “Users” group but if you prefer to another group, simply create a new one and add your users to it.

Step 1: Create Folder for our FTP Site

FTP default root is at C:inetpubftproot. We are going to create a directory in C:inetpub and make sure FTP has enough permissions to read from the folder.

Right-click on the folder and select “properties“. That will open up the folder properties

On the folder properties, click on the Security tab, highlight the group you would wish to be granted permissions to access the file by clicking on it, it is “Users” in this case. Click “Edit“

After clicking on “Edit“, permissions for <groupname> will come alive as shown below. Here, simply check “Full control” and all will be good.

Step 2: Create a new FTP Site

Without leaving IIS Manager, right-click “Sites” and choose “Add FTP Site“. An “Add FTP Site” wizard will pop-up. Input your preferred name of the site and choose the folder you just added above. Click “Next” thereafter.

Wizard is shown below

Input your preferred name of the site and choose the folder you just added in Step 1.

Result, click “Next“

Step 3: Set Binding and optional SSL Settings

In this next window, you can either leave the IP as “All Unassigned” which means 0.0.0.0/0 or you can enter the specific IP of the Server. The port is 21 by default. Since we haven’t configured any SSL, choose “No SSL” radio and click “Next“.

Step 4: Authentication and Authorization

This is a crucial step. We shall use “Basic” authentication and specify specific users we added to our Server. For that, we choose “Specific roles or user groups” from the Authorization dropdown.

Step 5: Choose a group and give permissions

A user had been added to the default “Users” group in the Server. Because of that, we shall add “Users” under Authorization then check read and write permissions. Click “Finish” after that.

Step 6: Input IP for clients to connect

Click on the FTP Site and select “FTP Firewall Support” then click on “Open Feature“. A pop-up will come forth. Therein, under “External IP Address of Firewall” enter the IP of your server or firewall if you are behind one. Click “Apply” and we shall be done with the configuration. The next step is to just test using FTP Client.

Input IP

Step 7: Test using FTP Client

Open up your FTP Client such as Filezilla and let us test if we can connect to our FTP Site.

Click “File” and choose “Site Manager“

Click “New Site“

Key-in details to connect to FTP Site. IP, Username, Port and Password then click “Connect“

FTP without SSL is insecure hence the prompt below. Click “OK” as long as the FTP Site is not away from your premises.

Choose the password management that works best for you

Successful log-on

Step 8: Upload file to FTP Site.

Navigate to a file/folder you would wish to upload to the FTP, right-click and select “Upload“

Step 9: Confirm the folder was uploaded

Navigate to the destination of your FTP Site folder and cross-check if the file/folder was uploaded.

Conclusions

We have successfully configured our FTP Server and tested connectivity and transferred files. In case your FTP Server is in a remote site and your traffic passes through the internet, consider buying and using SSL. Add SSL to your server using How To Install SSL Certificate on IIS Web Server guide. Then in Step 3 above, select “Require SSL” radio and choose your added SSL thereat. Thank you for spending your time here to read through.

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