Problem with FTP under IIS

Configuration nightmares

[trillianjedi]

Hi all,

I'm unfortunately having to use IIS and a Windows Server for a particular project and I'm really stuck with what I thought should be a simple task to set up FTP access for user U to folder F.

I set up a new FTP site under Sites in the IIS manager and followed my nose (I had already created the user U). User U should have an FTP root folder on the admins desktop. I assumed that might create some priviledge issues, but I have shared that desktop folder with this user for read/write access.

The FTP client is giving me a "home directory inaccessible" error. I found some references to that through Google, but nothing that could help me (and convoluted answers).

Just wondered if anyone might be able to point me in the right direction to understand what's missing in this config?

On a Linux box this is a 5 second job. Definitely underscores the point for me of why we use Linux for servers!

Thanks...

[bmcgee]

Of course if it a 5 second tasks on the OS you are familiar with. As soon as you know how to do it, it will be 5 seconds on IIS also.

You are more likely to get a response if you didn't take jabs at the OS which is the basis of this forum...

[trillianjedi]

You are more likely to get a response if you didn't take jabs at the OS which is the basis of this forum

You're absolutely right - my apologies - I was just venting some frustration.

On a Linux machine this error would indicate a permissions issue (directory inaccessible), which could mean inaccessible from root all the way down to sub-folder.

Could someone let me know how Windows differs from Linux in this respect? Eg, do I need to (in Windows) "share" a directory heirarchy from root ("/") all the way down to the subfolder I ultimately want the user to land in when connecting via FTP ?

Also, perhaps it's just not possible at all to allow a non-Admin user access to Admins desktop ?

[carguy84]

So I think there might be 2 issues at play here.

The first, and easiest to detect is - can that user access the admin's folder on the desktop. Even with permissions set correctly, I bet Windows still blocks it.

Easiest thing to do is to create a temporary folder on the C:\ drive - C:\ftptest\ or something and set that up with the correct user's permissions.

The second thing to check is the actual FTP settings in IIS. Did you make the folder a virtual directory, or did you just make the root of the folder the folder on the admin's desktop? In either case, you're going to need to allow access to iusr_MACHINENAME. But I still think you're going to run into a permissions issue because of the problem above.

I think IIS is great as a web server, however their FTP services really leave something to be desired. You're not alone in your confusion/frustration.

Chip-

[mattur]

The most useful docs I managed to find when wrestling with IIS are the "Mastering IIS FTP" [weblogs.asp.net] articles. Presumably this is all documented somewhere in MS's docs, but I couldn't find them. HTH.

[trillianjedi]

Thanks for the help guys - that got me through it eventually. It was a case of setting user perms and file perms all the way down through the hierarchy.

You're not alone in your confusion/frustration.

I'm glad to hear it's not just me!

Many thanks.

[sirnoucamp]

Thank you for the help. I got problems with that too. Fixed;)