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I recently installed Ubuntu Server for the first time followed by LAMP. My plan is to have a separate computer to host my websites. So, next step I wanted to allow for FTP uploading. I'd heard of FTP servers and guessed this was the step required to open a server up to FTP access (much in the same way as installing SSH server to allow SSH access). Before I installed anything though I just tried to access the server using FileZilla over sFTP .. to my surprise it worked. So I did't need to install anything?? Does that mean I have an FTP server running already? When I view tutorials of allowing FTP access on Ubuntu Server people recommend vsftpd. Why install additional FTP software when I can already transfer files? Or does this let me do more with my server? Sorry to sound like a complete beginner here but, well, I am :) Would appreciate if someone could shed a little light on the matter so I can feel I've achieved some understanding of how to do properly set up a server with FTP access.
Thanks for your reply but I'm actually trying to find the difference between sFTP and an FTP server. I want to understand what the need for an FTP server is, and what it offers over sFTP. – Martyn – 2014-04-19T10:29:31.323
Fair enough. I have edited my answer. – bjanssen – 2014-04-19T20:25:17.957
So, I can connect via SFTP using system users' login only? If I install a server, one of the things I can do is create/delete FTP user accounts (different from system accounts) to access files? If so, the term "server" here is starting to make sense to me :) – Martyn – 2014-04-20T09:30:27.427
Yes, but the limitation is one of the used server software not the protocol. SFTP, the protocol, doesnt't care -- openssh, the daemon, does. That's why you can run a SFTP service via your proftpd server. You should try to keep these things separated. – bjanssen – 2014-04-20T17:31:03.593