FTP account problems

[Cain]

Hi,

im having problems with setting up FTP accounts. I have a VPS where i host 2 sites and each one have different domains. Thats why aside from having "defaul_website" on my site list i have another one named after its respective domain. The main site is the one on the root folder (wwwroot) and the other one is inside a directory called forum inside the wwwroot folder. I want separate FTP accounts, one for accessing the main site and other for having access only to the forum directory without being able to go to the upper level (root directory).

I enabled FTP publishing in both sites and created accounts. FTP users for the main directory can login fine. However, despite im creating allow rules for each of the users that need access to the FTP of the forum directory, they cant login. Why is that? What else have i to do in order to make them able to login? if i add the allow rule on the main site then they can login but by doing so they have access to the root directory as well which i dont need. Could you please give me a hint?

Thank you.

 

[koga73]

If your not already using FTP virtual hosts you should. With IIS 7 Microsoft changed how FTP works for multiple domains. Using virtual hosts you pass the domain along in the username for FTP login. For instance if I have the following domains on the same server:
site1.com
site2.com

You enable a virtual hostname for site2.com after setting up ftp for site1.com. Then to login you point your FTP to:
[ServerIP hosting both sites]
User: site2.com|user@domain.com
Pass: *******

So the username becomes "{VIRTUAL_HOST}|{ACCOUNT}"
Hope that helps.

 

[Nuker]

Hi,

thanks for your answer (im Cain). Im afraid im not familiar with virtual FTP hosts. Where can i activate it? what i did is to add a site as a FTP site in the site manager but didnt work either.

Thank you.

P.S. i had to make another account because when i log in with my facebook account it keeps logging me out and i cant post. Why is that?

 

[koga73]

When you add an FTP site there is a checkbox that allows you to enable a virtual host name. Make this the same as your domain name.
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/320/using-ftp-virtual-host-names-in-iis-7/

No idea about your Facebook problem... Facebook sucks anyways don't use it.

 

[Nuker]

Thank you, but seems like it didnt work. I removed the FTP site and readded it with the settings you say but still i cant give access to that user.

 

[koga73]

Does the user your trying to login as have an associated email? Ive found that putting only the username doesn't work. You have to specify an email address or the windows domain\username. Are you able to login to the domain using the administrator account?

 

[Nuker]

Hi,

i searched but i couldnt find where to input an associated email. Where do you do that? with the root account i can login as long as i have added the allow rule in the default site but cant login either if the allow rule is only in the ftp site.

 

[koga73]

You have a domain controller as well correct? If so if you look at your users you can go into the properties for a user and set an email address. If I were you I would remove all user rules from the IIS root node and sites then add the administrator account as an allowed user to the FTP site your trying to get working. Once you are able to login then add other users.

 

[Nuker]

Im not familiar with that. Is it a windows function or i have to install it from somewhere else? actually i read somewhere that filezilla server does what i am looking for so i installed and it works like a charm. Now i can create ftp accounts and set a home directory for each one. However, i still want to know how to set it up in windows just for in case so if you tell me more about domain controller and all that i will appreciate it.

Thank you.

 

[koga73]

Are you running IIS on Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7? Either way you shouldn't need a Domain Controller to get the FTP working... although I'm not really sure what your problem is exactly. When I setup FTP in IIS it was pretty straight forward but my server running IIS is tied to a Domain Controller as well. I think the problem your having stems from your user accounts. This is different for me because my windows accounts are handled through Active Directory on my Domain Controller.

 

[Nuker]

Im running it on Windows Server 2008 R2 and the problem is not the FTP itself, but the account access. I have a VPS where i host 2 sites and each one have different domains. So aside from having "default_website" on my site list i have another one named after its respective domain. The main site is the one on the root folder (wwwroot) and the other one is inside a directory called forum inside the wwwroot folder. I want separate FTP accounts, one for accessing the main site and other for having access only to the forum directory without being able to go to the upper level (root directory). The problem is, if i add allow rules for the default_website, then the users get FTP access for both sites. But if i add allow rules only for the second site (forum) then those users cant get FTP access. They are not able to login. Thats the problem. I dont understand why allow rules wont work in the second site (forum).

 

[koga73]

Strange. Let me get this straight, you have FTP setup for both your default site and forum site correct? Each site has its own directory in the wwwroot directory?
So...
--wwwroot
----site1
----site2
Is that how you are configured?

 

[Nuker]

Not exactly. Default_website is site1, the root directory is wwwroot whereas site2 is in a directory called forum which is inside wwwroot. Domain1.com points to wwwroot and domain2.com points to wwwroot/forum. In fact, since site2 is inside site1 you can access site2 from domain1.com/forum as well. Sorry if it sounds too confusing.

 

[koga73]

Oh ok I see now. IIS doesn't really work that way... Typically you wouldn't nest websites where you have site1 and site2 that is in the directory of site1. If you are going to do something like this then you would want to convert site2 to an application... But this still won't allow you to setup separate FTP sites. This also explains why you are unable to add users for site2 since site2 is in site1 it makes sense that site1s user rules are affecting site2.

I think a smarter way to set this up is with subdomains. Instead of having site2 inside site1 have site1 and site2 in separate directories in the wwwroot. Then instead of using site1.com/forums you can setup a subdomain for forums.site1.com. This will allow you to setup a separate FTP for each.

 

[Nuker]

Thank you for your interest. I think im gonna give it up because it seems pretty complicated and time consuming. Fortunately i found a third party solution with filezilla server which is perfect foor what i want to achieve.

Thank you!