Using this webserver for storing files with FTP

[Penri]

Hamish

Please ensure that the general purpose storage space, i.e. storage that will be used and accessed by others, is trivially easy to use for the non-technical. It needs to be drag and drop into a :X (or whatever drive) easy!

[TerryJC]

Penri,

Basically, accessing servers on FTP is never 'trivially easy', because you need to get the security right. However, the use of a GUI based FTP client makes it almost trivial.

I have used FileZilla for years. We used it at work and I've used it on my desktop and laptop to access my own webserver, and other sites that I've needed to upload files to. In particular, I use it to access the River System Pis to download the Results and logfiles. Filezilla is available on Windows, Linux and MacOS (see https://filezilla-project.org/).

I've put a snapshot of my settings for the WMT Forum Fileserver below.

FileZilla_Settings.png (71.7 KiB) Viewed 1344 times

I don't believe I changed anything in the other three settings tabs. Once you have it set up properly. then it is genuinely drag and drop. although the use of '..' instead of an up-arrow to move up one directory level might throw the uninitiated.

[hamishmb]

Agreed with Terry, and though I recommend and use FileZilla, it may not be the simplest for the uninitiated.

It's possible to connect to FTP servers through Finder (macOS), and Windows Explorer, though in the latter case encryption cannot be used :/

I'll make some tutorial videos to help people get this set up soon.

[Penri]

Hamish

Please discuss and show to solution to Greg, sell it to him.

From my experience it it's not seen as a another "drive", I think that what Windows uses would call it, it will not be used by the lay user.


Hwyl

Penri

[TerryJC]

I hadn't realised this before, but apparently the Nemo file browser on Linux also allows access to FTP servers. Like Windows Explorer, it doesn't seem to support any kind of encryption.

It could be useful for anyone using Linux Mint but there are lots of dependencies for those not using Mint. In any case I suspect, that most Linux users would stick to tools like Filezilla (or if they're real men ), use ftp in the shell (or scp, if it's available).

[hamishmb]

Yeah, you can do the same with Nautilus, but it doesn't tend to work very well in my experience

With Nemo, you can manually type "ftps://<user>@<server>/", but it doesn't work with Windows Explorer (at least in Vista, I need to mess about a bit more).

Is Greg going to be using this?

[TerryJC]

Is Greg going to be using this?

I hadn't thought of Greg et al wanting to use this faciltity, although it would be useful if they did (for requirements capture for example).

I had assumed that people like Peter and other members of the Railway Team might be more inclined to use it if it was easy from Windows.

[Penri]

When Hamish raised the subject yesterday I had already been talking to Greg et al about storing the various 3D models, print files, etc. I have plus other WMT files in an online store. Nick is about to start 3D modelling so it seemed like a good opportunity to use one resource. The only stipulation is that it’s very easy to use. Hamish thought that would be possible. If it is, great, if not them I’ll need to find an alternative.

[hamishmb]

It turns out to be pretty easy. I made a couple of tutorial videos linked from this post: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=188