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I am still fiddling my way through learning Linux (ubuntu in particular), and was wondering if anyone has done this before, or have an idea on how this is possible.

I want to host an FTP site/website (with the ability to save back to certain location for the FTP site), but I only have a DynamicIP at home - a staticIP address is ~ $120/mth and I'm not doing that.

Anyone think this i s possible? The machine accesses the net through a router (if that complicates things). It's a Belkin Wireless-G router.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

http://www.no-ip.com, grab the free dns client, voila. It will update the server name you choose (lex.no-ip.biz for example) with whatever you ip changes to. I've used them for awhile now to do exactly what you want.

pete_roth wrote:

http://www.no-ip.com, grab the free dns client, voila. It will update the server name you choose (lex.no-ip.biz for example) with whatever you ip changes to. I've used them for awhile now to do exactly what you want.

You can grab noip from a repository. Much simpler to do 'sudo apt-get install noip' (or whatever the name is).

http://www.no-ip.com/downloads.php There's the direct download link, sorry. They do in fact have a linux client. You'll need to configure your router to work with the ftp ports / whatever else you want to use. But isntead of hard coding an ip, you use the hos tname of your no-ip.com account. So instead of your ip address you'd have lex.whatever.com that always points to your ip address and is updated, at the soonest, every 5 minutes.

home: Yeah USA, I don't do linux, sorry

I use DynDNS myself, mainly because my Linksys router has support built-in. I don't use it for anything but ssh so I can read Usenet at work.

The dynamic ip have nothing to do with the OS you run.
Just get a router capable to update a DynDNS account or a similar service.
Next, set the router to route the traffic on ftp port and http port to your server.

Have a look here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=53914

I've dealt with this a lot, and now have a stable server. I use ddclient to change my IP address with zoneedit. (Gentoo Linux Wiki has a short write up of how to set ddclient up.) I can only assume it's working because I haven't had any trouble accessing my Web sites.

As far as FTP goes, it is not a good idea. Alternatively, you can let Apache handle file uploads and downloads, or you can use OpenSSH/SFTP.

Oh, and here are some books I recommend reading:
Apache: The Definitive Guide
What's New in Apache Web Server 2.2?
Here's a HOWTO that I wrote:
HOWTO SSL Enabled, Name Based Virtual Hosts with Apache
And take a look at this:
Securing SSHD

titan wrote:

As far as FTP goes, it is not a good idea. Alternatively, you can let Apache handle file uploads and downloads, or you can use OpenSSH/SFTP.

Oh, and here are some books I recommend reading:
Apache: The Definitive Guide
What's New in Apache Web Server 2.2?
Here's a HOWTO that I wrote:
HOWTO SSL Enabled, Name Based Virtual Hosts with Apache
And take a look at this:
Securing SSHD

I was asking about FTP because my sister was looking for someplace to keep her files and access them when needed. She is in the Bahamas, and we have alot of power outages where my parants live, so machines don't last too long. If I can provide for her a spot where she can keep important data, open and adjust a file, then save it back to a spot will be ideal. She doesn't trust on-line storage solutions and not about to try and convince her otherwise.

Two reasons to use SFTP instead of plain FTP:

Encryption!
Firewall- and NAT-friendliness. SFTP doesn't open a random port like FTP does for its data transfers.

Filezilla's a decent program for doing FTP and SFTP transfers.

lex-ington wrote:

I was asking about FTP because my sister was looking for someplace to keep her files and access them when needed. She is in the Bahamas, and we have alot of power outages where my parants live, so machines don't last too long. If I can provide for her a spot where she can keep important data, open and adjust a file, then save it back to a spot will be ideal. She doesn't trust on-line storage solutions and not about to try and convince her otherwise.

That's what the SSH thing is about. You can have her download WinSCP, and it'll be just like any other FTP program she's dealt with before. Plus it's a standalone program, so it doesn't really install. So she can put it on a thumb drive and run it anywhere.

pete_roth wrote:

http://www.no-ip.com/downloads.php There's the direct download link, sorry.

It is almost always better to install from your distro's repository, if it supports the package in question. That way the installation (and any dependencies) can be handled automatically by your distro's package manager. It looks like Ubuntu supports no-ip, so your best bet is to run "sudo apt-get install no-ip" instead of downloading and installing it manually.

emi25 wrote:

The dynamic ip have nothing to do with the OS you run.
Just get a router capable to update a DynDNS account or a similar service.
Next, set the router to route the traffic on ftp port and http port to your server.

Seems kind of silly to buy a new router just for this. DynDNS also recommends against using router-based update clients, for a variety of reasons.

JBI, I use a router to update my DynDNS account for a year and something.

emi25 wrote:

JBI, I use a router to update my DynDNS account for a year and something.

I didn't say it wouldn't work; I was just pointing out that DynDNS recommends using a software based client instead. And if the OP's router doesn't support it already, why pay for a new router to get functionality you can get for free?