Q1: Does Cerberus FTP Server support SSL?

Yes, Cerberus FTP Server fully supports explicit TLSv1/SSLv3 encryption over FTP.

Q2: How do I pass a username and password to the FTP server from a web browser?

According to the specification of URL formats, RFC 1738, an FTP URL is of the form:

ftp://user:password@host:port/path

so that some or all of the parts user:password@, :password, :port and /path may be excluded.

The components obey the following rules:

The host is usually the external IP address that your ISP has assigned to you. Cerberus FTP Server will attempt to detect it and display is as the WAN IP Address on startup.

Security Note: You should generally avoid using FTP URL sytax for anything other than anonymous FTP access. Including a password is a security risk. On most browsers, it will be visible as you type it, and it will be retained by your history file.

For more information check out: FTP URLs

Q3: How do I configure Cerberus FTP Server to run as a service?

Cerberus FTP Server can be configured to run as an NT service by going to the 'Advanced' menu of the 'Server Manager' and selecting the 'Install As A Service' checkbox. See the image below:

NOTE: You must give the process permission to install the service after pressing OK. You will require an account that has permission to install a Windows Service. This should normally be an Administrator account. On some operating systems you will be prompted for the credentials to an Administrator account, similiar to the dialog below:

Q4: How can a client change their login password remotely?

A client being able to change its password was not supported in the original FTP specification, but Cerberus supports client password changes via the FTP 'SITE' extensions command. The syntax is:

Q5: What IP address should I give other people to connect to my FTP server over the Internet?

First, make sure you've configured Cerberus FTP Server to be visible on the Internet. Assuming you are connecting through the Internet through a router, you will need to use your router IP address. Cerberus will automatically detect it and display it at startup as the 'WAN IP' address in the screen log. It should be the first thing listed when Cerberus FTP Server starts up, assuming you have 'Detect WAN IP at Startup' enabled from the 'General' tab of the Server Manager.

Q6: What does the "Default" interface do?

An interface is simply an IP address that the FTP Server is listening on. It can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address. The "Default" interface represents the settings that will be applied for newly detected interfaces. When a new interface is detected, that interface it assigned the values of the "Default" interface at the time of detection.

For example, If the "Default" interface was defined to be on port 21, then all interfaces detected will receive that value the first time they are detected. Those settings then become the settings for the newly detected interface. Note that the new interface's settings are not linked to the "Default" interface in any way. The "Default" interface simply represents the values that newly detected interfaces will be initialized with. Changing the values of the "Default" interface wouldn't change any values on existing or previously detected interfaces.

When you first install Cerberus FTP Server, the "Default" interface is set to port 21 (the default FTP listening port) and all interfaces detected during the first start will receive that value. If you later change the "Default" interface value that change will have no effect on existing interfaces.

It is also worth noting that Cerberus remembers the settings for interfaces that were previously detected but might have changed. For servers that have dynamic addresses that constantly change or cycle between a range of addresses, Cerberus will "remember" the old values and apply those instead of the "Default" settings if that interface address is later detected again.

Q7: How do I backup and restore my user accounts and settings?

For Cerberus FTP Server 3.0 and above there is a fairly simple and straightforward method of backing up and restoring all users and settings. Just copy the "Cerberus FTP Server" folder and subfolders located at:

• C:\ProgramData\Cerberus LLC\Cerberus FTP Server on Windows Vista and above
  
  or
  
  
• C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Cerberus LLC\Cerberus FTP Server on Windows 2003 and below

and you will have backed up all of the users and settings for a complete install of Cerberus FTP Server. Restoring everything just requires pasting the files back to that location.