Creating FTP for my public web server

Question

So I have set up port forwarding on my router and have a public IP address for my raspberry pi. I can see the default webpage and it works great.

Now I want to actually create a FTP so that I can change the files on my web server. I have tried various tutorials but they all seem to be for local work. And I seem to lock myself out of the folders I need.

Any help would be great. I just want to change the index file in the /var/www directory while logged into my FTP with my public IP address from my Pi.

• Tyson: For ftp you need to forward port 21. I wouldn't open port 21 on my router tho. Ftp is a very old and very insecure protocol. Password travel the Internet in clear text. Random port scanners that "drive by" your IP may try a brute force attack. Better to use ssh, or perhaps SFTP.

Answer 1

If you want to use FTP cross network, then you need to forward port 20. If you want to use SFTP cross network then forward port 22. SFTP is extremely simple if you already use SSH. If you need FTP, and not SFTP, follow this tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=r0BoBkv3cwg

Answer 2

If you've enabled SSH (easily done with raspi-config), then you ought to be able to use SFTP.

$ sftp [email protected]
Connected to 192.168.0.2.
sftp> pwd
Remote working directory: /home/pi

If you're having permissions problems on /var/www you'll need to make sure the pi user can read-write.

$ sudo chown -R pi:pi /var/www
$ ls -la /var/www
total 40
drwxr-sr-x 6 pi pi 4096 Oct 8 19:19 .
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Sep 22 09:59 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 2928 Oct 8 19:19 index.html

• Tyson: If you choose ssh, you will need to forward port 22
• 0cean_: Yea, I have SFTP a;ready set up. I believe it comes standard. But the SFTP is only local. I'm trying to access my web servers files remotely. I would be able access it remotely with SFTP and setting those permissions? Also, I already have the port forwarding setup for the FTP but I haven't for the SSH. If I do so will this allow remote access under SFTP?
• Christopher Biggs: Listen to @nachito. Don't use plain FTP, it's not secure. Forwarding port 22 from your router to your Pi will enable outside access for not SSH and SFTP.