Step 1: download FTP server software

The first step is to download an FTP server software for Windows operating system, we recommend you the RaidenFTPD FTP server software.

Download the software (raidenftpd2.exe) and open it to launch the setup procedure, just click I agree and next next and next to finish the setup program.

After it is installed, you will see an RaidenFTPD icon on your desktop

And a program group called RaidenFTPD under your start menu

And the RaidenFTPD program will also be opened automatically for the first time, and you will notice that there will also be an icon on your task bar notification area to indicate that RaidenFTPD program is now running.

Step 2: configure the FTP server software

After you install and start the RaidenFTPD FTP server software, the first thing to do is to start up your FTP server, there are some basic things you need to know before you do it.

1. You need to specifiy a port number for FTP server to listen on, it's usually 21.
2. You need to prepare a root path for the FTP server, the root directory is the place where your FTP users will see and be locked to when they connect and login your server.
3. Anonymous access means if you want to allow anyone to connect to this server without having a named account and password, usually this is set to OFF for a private server.

Now we can start to configure the FTP server

Specify a server name, anything you like.

Specify IP,PORT,ROOT path and click next.

In the second step you don't need to change anything and click next.

In the last step click ok and it's done.

Step 3: Create the 1st user account

The key point to setup an FTP server in Windows is to have named accounts, when creating an FTP user account on your RaidenFTPD ftp server software, and the following information will automatically be generated and copied to your system clip board.

You can launch batch users manager by clicking this icon or the menu >> setup >> users

And groups. And it is automatically opened when your first server is started.

click Add to create an user account. just enter the user name/pass, specify its user leve, and if it should be using server's VFS structure or not. finally when it finishes, the following information will be copied to clipboard.

Now that you are an FTP site master, please forward the above information to your ftp client users, your users will be able to use Internet explorer to connect to your FTP server by the aboe direct IE url or using a professional FTP client such as SmartFTP client which is also FIPS 140-2 and SFTP compliant.

Step 4: Test your FTP server

After you installed it, configured the Firewall, configured the router, you should be able to connect to your FTP server from home network by using your private IP-address or connect to your FTP server from outside of the router using your wan IP-address. You can use Internet explorer to test the connect, the url should be ftp://USER:PASS@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS:PORT/

Or it's better to use a FTP client to connect to your FTP server, it's more convenient and powerful.

Once you have your FTP server working, you maybe interested in setting up other kinds of internet servers, we recommend RaidenHTTPD web server and RaidenTunes streaming server or music server

If you are interested in SEO, please also visit our page.