This is a quick start guide. Its intent is to help you get up and running with as little configuration as possible. This walk through should take less than 10 minutes until you are able to login with your first user. Ideally it should take around two minutes to quickly setup a basic CrushFTP server. The extra time is to account for swapping back and forth while reading this guide. Before running CrushFTP, you will probably need to allow incoming access to your server if you have a router. I have included an example screenshot of the basic configuration for a LinkSys style router. Your IP address that you forward too will likely be different. This is only meant as an example. Whatever your router, you will be required to at least map port 21. If you don't have a router, then you can ignore this part. If you have a firewall, the setup is similar. The range of 2000-2010 is nor by any means a required range. I just happened to like those numbers. Any range above 1025 is fine. Some routers can't map ranges and you may have to map each port one at a time. If this is your case, do as many as you can. The screen shot below is an example of the "Sharing" control panel's add dialog in MacOS X's "System Preferences" for adding a firewall rule item that will allow access to the CrushFTP server. If your firewall is not on, you don't need to worry about this. When you first launch CrushFTP you may be notified that port 21 is locked. You will be prompted to fix this.
CrushFTP will launch a terminal window and execute some commands. You will need to enter your password when prompted. This is the same password you would use when doing software updates from Apple, or when installing new software on your computer. Enter it and press return. You will not see what you are typing, but that is OK. Just type and press return. This fix only needs to happen the first time, or after most java updates, which are applied by the software update control panel. Next a splash screen will appear. It may take up to 30 seconds on slower computers for this to come up. After the splash screen has disappeared, the main status window will appear. The upper left will list your current IP. It should have your true internet IP as seen from the outside world. In this example I have it showing my internal IP. Take a quick look at the prefs tab and make sure the checkbox for "FTP Aware Router" is enabled. If not, enable it, and click apply.
The banned IP in this picture is just an example of what one would look like and is in no way meant to indicate how to setup your server. I do not recommend banning your localhost (127.0.0.1) IP. Next use the file menu and select "Users / Groups..." or press "command-u". Since its your first time, you will get a question asking if you want to use the wizard to create a user. I recommend clicking "No", and continuing reading this how-to guide. You are welcome to explore that option later. You will then have a window looking similar to this. Click the 2nd button in the upper left (file icon with a plus sign.) You will be asked to enter in a username.
You can use any name you want, but pay attention to a few rules. No spaces, avoid foreign language characters, as well as other special characters. Many FTP clients don't understand how to properly transmit these types of characters. In my example above I previously created a user named "anonymous". If this user exists here, that is the only way anonymous logins will be allowed. In my example above, I created a user named "jimmy". I then selected him in the list on the left. I typed a password "jim" which is displayed as "***". Next I began browsing to a folder under the "Your Stuff" heading. I have selected the "Applications" folder. I am about to drag that folder over to the listing under the "Users Stuff" folder. Once I have done so it looks something like this. After I dragged it over, I selected it in the right pane's listing. Once I selected it the checkboxes to the right came alive showing me the selected folders current permissions. By default a folder starts with Download, Resume, and View. I have added in a few extra to give the equivalent of full control over that folder. Be careful not to get "click happy" by enabling everything. For example if you pick "Invisible", this folder won't show up at all. Unless you know exactly what the checkbox does, I recommend not enabling it. Stick with these basic enabled checkboxes to give full control. Finally, either close this window, or click "Save All Changes Made". Do not to worry if you forget to click this, you will be prompted to save if neccesary. That's it! You are now ready to login. Go grab your favorite FTP client, and fill in your IP, the user you created, and the password you set. The main CrushFTP window should look something like this after you have logged in.
If you have trouble logging in: -Check the "Server Log" tab to see if anything is showing up in there when you try to log in. If it doesn't change when you try to log in, then you may need to adjust some settings on your router. This is generally very easy with new routers. You will want to forward port 21 (ftp) to your machine. Its often a local IP such as 192.168.1.100. Do this and try again. -You will want to turn off the built in firewall in OS X as well. Its hard coded to only work with the built in FTP server. -Also verify the greeting message from any server response you get when using an FTP client. Check to see that it is reported as CrushFTP and not some other FTP Server. If you are having troubles getting started, feel free to ask my discussion forum questions, or myself directly. There is a link to the discussion forum on my downloads page. http://www.crushftp.com/downloads.html You may also email me directly at ben@crushftp.com. Enjoy!