FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It was written by Abhay Bhushan and published in 1971. FTP is supported by all the operating systems and browsers.
It is a client-server based protocol.
How FTP works
Step a: Client connects to server on port 21.
Step b: Server responds and ask for authentication.
Step c: Client decides weather to connect passively or actively and authenticate with credentials(user name password).
Step d: If it is an active connection, server opens port 20 for data transfer and gives ftp prompt after successful authentication.
Step e: Client call for file and server initiates file transfer.
Following picture shows a simple way of data transfer through ftp.
Installing FTP server in Centos
Step 1: We will use below host name and IP address for our test machine to setup FTP server
Server IP: 192.168.0.9
Host Name: ftp.linuxnix.com
Just edit file /etc/hosts
#vi /etc/hosts
and add the line on bottom and save
192.168.0.9 ftp.linuxnix.com
Step 2: Install vsftpd (very secure FTP daemon) package.
#yum install vsftpd ftp
Configuring FTP server in Linux Centos
Step 3: Configure vsftpd package. We will edit /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf you can do this with gedit (If installed) or vi command.
#vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
Change the line which contain anonymous_enable=YES to anonymous_enable=NO. This will permit any one to access FTP server with authentication.
anonymous_enable=YES
Uncomment the following line
local_enable=YES allow users in /etc/passwd to login
write_enable=YES allow users to write files. ???NO??? will permit only to read.
Change the line chroot_local_user=NO to chroot_local_user=YES. This will permit local user as FTP account. If you add an user, it will be treated as a FTP account as well.
The local user directory will be the FTP directory.
Read Full Post: http://www.linuxnix.com/7-steps-to-install-and-configure-ftp-server/