FTP Server

[Dark Nadir]

Hey everyone. Alright, so for quite some time (starting around mid-year 2002 when I first started posting here), I've been into filesharing. It started with music, then movies, and then programs, games, and even piano sheet music and other random things. Eventually, I discovered FTP servers when I registered for another community that has a large userbase that manages them. I became interested in how they worked and did some reading up on them, and eventually set up my own server through my computer. For a long time, this server has been mainly for a few people that I know, but I'm going to try making it public here on OLS and seeing how things go. Alright, so now the instructions for using the server...

If you are familiar with File-Transfer Protocols (FTPs), then skip ahead to part 3, otherwise keep reading.

1. In order to access my FTP server, you need an FTP client. There are a number of different clients, all with their pros and cons. SmartFTP, however, is free--and moreover, it is highly functional. Just Google the name and you should have no trouble finding its homepage and getting it downloaded and installed.

2. Once you have an FTP client installed, run the program. You should notice four fields of entry displayed in the program (if you're using SmartFTP, they'll be displayed in the upper portion of the screen). The fields are: Address, Login, Password, and Port.

3. The login information is as follows:

This server has been changed to a private, case-by-case FTP server. If you would like to have access to the server, you must first PM me saying that you are interested in using the FTP, including the password you would like to have for your account. Take note that I am not obligated to grant you access and that I determine eligibility based on factors such as participation and good standing with the community.

When you login on the download account, you'll also notice a text document in the main directory. Read that document for more detailed information on getting the most out of my FTP server. Keep in mind that this server is run directly off of my computer through my Internet connection, so access to the server is therefore limited by constraints of bandwidth. Thus, the server may sometimes be offline for extended periods of time. Finally, when you download something, please just post a comment in this thread and let me know. It will encourage me to keep the server available here if I actually get feedback on it, and it will also keep this thread bumped for other people to see.

Happy downloading!

Banned IPs:

-200.48.18.149 (tried to login as "admin")
-58.60.237.66 (tried to login as "testroot")
-218.27.204.99 (tried to login as "Administrator")

[Crimson]

This is a great idea. I'll give as much as I take, you're warned.

[Dark Nadir]

Hey, good to know. What types of music do you have? I might as well post up requests if you're up for sharing.

[Crimson]

I've got a ton of j-rock (including the pillows discography), hours and hours of techno (the good kind, all varieties), a wide selection of indie rock, a little hip hop/ hip hop djs, some rock en espanol and some audio books. What about you?

I'll get set up today and get the thing figure out.

[Ghost]

Nadir, I finally get on broadband and now your server is offline. /wrist.

[Dark Nadir]

It...should be working.

Go on AIM or something.

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by Dark Nadir

It...should be working.

Go on AIM or something.

Eh oh well, I'm back on my ol' 56k now. Probably won't be able to download anything wortwhile till Blizzard releases the WoW 2.0 patch.

[Dark Nadir]

Bumping this thread before it dies to say that, with XT's help, I got the problem fixed. Turns out I forgot to update the port forwarding on my firewall.

Everything should be working now.

Also, sorry for not replying sooner, Crimson. I was going to, then put it off, and ended up forgetting entirely. Anyway, the server's working now, so feel free to login and check it out for yourself. But category-wise, I've got a humble collection of J-pop/rock, a nice mainstream folder with mostly everything (with the exception of country and rap, although there's a little bit of folk and hiphop), then there's also a bunch of soundtracks for animes, movies and games since I'm a nerd who's into that sorta thing.

I have it really well organized though, so just login and check it out when you get a chance. Seeing specific artists helps a lot more in knowing music tastes, but I'm too lazy to write them out here. =P

EDIT: oh yeah, as far as requests, I'm trying to build up my J-pop/rock stuff. I've got a folder with all of it so just look through it and fill it in with whatever stuff you like most. Post what you upload, I'll check it out and let you know what my thoughts are (or I'll be lazy and take forever and then post my thoughts) and then hopefully you'll get an idea what my tastes are.

Although, I'm a collector, so odds are, once you upload it, unless it's really god-awful, I'll keep it and treasure it forever. <3

EDIT 2: I just noticed that my Backhorn albums under Japanese Mainstream are using Japanese names that aren't viewable through my FTP program (SmartFTP, latest version). Not sure if this is the case for all FTP programs, but this seems to illustrate what I was talking to you about on AIM, XT.

[XT-8147]

and too lazy you have a right to be... holy crap there's a lot of stuff on there.

I want a bigger hard drive

Anyway, enjoy the two Nami Tamaki albums I uploaded. I'll have to see about getting her third album now that I know it exists.

Update: And it's... acting strangely again. This time it says I can't upload a file and that I don't have permission. It's also being really slow. So there's a 0 byte file in there now from a failed transfer that had its connection reset. The name should give you a clue as to what it should be though

Update 2: And when I try to even view the contents of the Backhorn directories I get an error. The names show up with question marks in FireFTP.

Update 3: I think I'll listen to my brain and go get some sleep. Stupid thing doesn't want to do 24 hour days anymore. Permissions on the upload account (at least for me) seem to be fudged. Tried again with the command line ftp client that comes with windows but to no avail. I'll try sending the file again whenever it is that I wake up next.

[Dark Nadir]

I ran some tests through my computer and was able to upload, but yeah, I checked the FTP log and noticed that it was giving you problems. I really am not sure what could be causing it. I checked the permissions and everything seems to be setup fine for the uploading account. Pretty weird -- especially strange is that you were able to upload stuff just last night and I didn't change any settings. Try uploading some more music and see if it still allows that. Maybe it doesn't allow .zip files for some reason? I really can't imagine why, but that's the only thing that differs between your successful uploads and the failed one.

Yeah, as for Backhorn, I tested it too, and that's the exact problem I have. Looks like I'll have to change the names to romaji Japanese if I want to ensure compatibility. Oh well.

[Crimson]

I have everything ready, and I've gotten as far as creating a "Crimson" folder and queueing a folder for transfer, but I keep getting a retry task in the Status field. Apparently it is unable to establish a connection to begin transfer.

abort/retry/fail?

/edit: to upload.

[Joe]

I love the idea and will probably search around it at some point, then possibly download and upload depending on spare time that I have.

EDIT 1:That said I have looked at it now and I canm only get access to the Movies folder, the tohers all come up with an error along the lines of:

425 Cannot open data connection (10060).

I don't know what is going on so, em, yeah.

Also thankyou for making this availiable to us.

EDIT 2: After just having said that I just gained access to the anime file, dunno if that is an error on my end or what? Just seems odd that every 6th or 7th attempt to open a folder results in it actually opening.

[Dark Nadir]

It may not have helped that I've had Bittorrent running all of today, which tends to have an adverse effect on my connection.

I'm thinking now that I may have to come up with a set schedule for when my server will be online with nothing else taking up bandwidth. I've set it up so that Bittorrent will start running at 1:00 am and is scheduled to run to 7 hours before shutting down as I've set it up on the Windows' Scheduled Tasks. I've got the server up and running 24/7, but from 1-8 am it probably won't work too well for anyone. However, the rest of the time, it should work fine, assuming that I'm correct about BT causing the problems for everyone.

Also, although I've got this in a text file under the download account's root directory, I'll paste up these tips for everyone here so you can access them whether or not the server's accessible.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

* Resuming - Access to the server may come and go, and so files may get cutoff when partially
downloaded. However, take note that it is possible to resume a download from where you left
off. To do so, simply start the file downloading to the exact same directory as you did when
you began downloading previously, ensuring that you have not renamed the partial file already
downloaded and then, when the prompt appears, rather than choosing to replace the file, instead
click resume. It will start right where it left off.

* Default Download Directory - You the user are left with the option to specify your own custom
download directory for SmartFTP. This is particularly nice if you (like me) have an external
hard drive setup for all of your media files, installers and documents and want to get your
downloaded content sent directly there. To setup a custom default directory, from the SmartFTP
window, click Tools > Settings. You will see a window appear with a column of categories on
the left side. Click the "Transfer" category, and then look where it says "Default Download
Path". In this field, you can specify the address of where files will be downloaded by default.

* Global Queue - You can set up a queue that will automatically resume downloads/uploads as
needed (in theevent of the server going offline or the file-transfer halting for some other
reason). This removes much ofthe micromanagement otherwise needed to ensure an efficient file-
transfer, so I highly recommend using theGlobal Queue instead of a direct file-transfer. To
globally queue an item, highlight it, right-click, then navigate to Download > Global Queue >
Local Destination > Default Folder (or Select Folder if you wish).

* A Word On NFOs - NFO files found on file-sharing networks are essentially text files that are
designed to display ASCII art. While it is perfectly feasible to view them within a text editor
like notepad, it is recommended to use a specialized program. I personally use DAMN NFO Viewer.
Get it at: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-...O-Viewer.shtml

[Crimson]

And just like that, there she goes. Thanks, senor.

I'll update what I've uploaded upon this post.

/edit: It's running rather slowly, what can I do to give it more umph?

[Dark Nadir]

Well, I don't have anything else running right now that should be having any significant impact on transfer speed. XT was able to get speeds of 50k/sec yesterday, so I know my connection is capable of doing alright.

Do you have anything going that might impair your connection? For that matter, what connection are you running on?

Edit: I should add that ISPs tend to provide a higher download rate than upload. So unfortunately, the weakest link of upload capping really emerges here, since my little DSL line is potentially having to upload to several users at once. It isn't bad if others upload to me, but the uploading cap still is the limiting factor.

Remember that you can set things on a queue and then go do something else while it does all the work of retrying for you.

[Crimson]

Cable connection, I could check the exact speed but I'm lazy. It's fast approaching that 1 am mark, and I should probably call it a night. I'll try again in the morning and let it run through the day. Thanks for the help.

[Electricity Gone Human]

Ah, killer!

This may be fun, considering that I have some certain things to upload and share. For instance, I found the first four chapters of volume 1 of the Outlaw Star manga fan-translated in ZIP files. ^^;

[Dark Nadir]

Hmm, I think I may have to put the server on some kind of schedule, too. There's just one user on it right now downloading, but it's definitely having an impact on my bandwidth. It's just an hour til midnight, and certain members of my family want the internet, so I'm gonna shut it down for now.

What I'm going to do is have it set up so that my server runs during the day while I'm gone at school and the rest of my family's away. What I suggest everyone do is follow the tip I posted about queuing up items in SmartFTP. Then just let the queue keep refreshing until the server goes online.

Not the greatest, but it's the best I can think of.

[XT-8147]

my 50 KB/sec was most likely without you having BT running... heh

I did manage to get a couple files through today but they went at like 1 KB/sec.

That and I've been using the windows command line ftp client because of (likely BT-related) problems getting directory listings with fireftp. It was behavior oddly reminiscent of my connection when I had Azureus' upload rate uncapped. It's probably a good idea to cap your upload on BT anyway since otherwise it will use every last bit of your upstream, making it hard for anything else (even web browsing) to use the upstream. My upstream maxes out at right around 52 KB/sec, so I capped Azureus at 32. I haven't taken the opportunity to work that out percentage wise, but it seems fair enough and I build up share ratios fairly easily so it's a non-issue.

[Dark Nadir]

Okay, I've set up my scheduled tasks so the server will run starting at 8 am until 6 pm--that's 10 hours. I'll see how well that works. People actually start getting home before then, but as long as it doesn't kill bandwidth to badly, it might be okay. We'll see.

Oh, and I also capped my BT bandwidth. One of these days, I'll try running the server and BT again at the same time and see if the caps make it work better. For now though, I'm just gonna stick with this.