Safe Computing

When you put a computer on a network, it becomes a lot less secure. If you share something on that network, you are even more at risk. There are a lot of hackers and ne'er-do-wells who specifically seek out ftp servers looking for vulnerabilities. If you do set your computer up as an FTP server we strongly recommend setting good passwords for it! The better the password, the harder it is for someone you don't want to get in. Yes, you can set up Anonymous FTP, but only do so aware of the risks.

So, how do I do this?

First, you need to be logged on to your Windows 2000 Professional or Server computer as Administrator. That is, the name you used to log in was 'Administrator' with the administrative password for that computer.
Have the Internet Information Services installed. There are other FTP programs out there, but IIS is the one that comes with your copy of Windows 2000. If it is not already installed, you can do so from the Add and Remove Programs Control Panel. Click on 'Windows Components' and then put a check mark in the box next to Internet Information Services (IIS). Click OK.
FTP is a part of Internet Information Services (IIS), if you do not already have that turned on, you will need to. Fortunately this is done in the same place you turn on FTP. But first, go to Microsoft's website and download the latest security updates for IIS, (VERY IMPORTANT!)
Go to start, choose 'control panels' and double click 'administrative tools'.
Double click on 'Services'.
There will be a complete list of the services on your computer, the two we are interested in are IIS and FTP. Find first IIS, if it says 'started' next to it, it's already on! great! (check those service packs!) if not, click on it once to highlight it and then at the top of the window click on 'Action' and choose 'Start'. Do this for FTP as well. There! Your computer is now an FTP server!

Note: You can also turn FTP on and off from the IIS Services Manager under Administrative tools. Again highlight the ftp site and click on 'action' then 'start' or 'stop' as needed.

As always, we highly recommend learning a lot about your computer before taking the leap into becoming a server administrator.