Should I set up an FTP on my main PC or dedicate a spare one to it?

[1ndigo]

I want to set up an FTP for some fairly basic file storage accessible over the internet to my laptop / other PC (divorced parents, so the PC at that other house) / my phone via the FileManager app. I could use either my main PC that I use day to day (specs available on my profile), or I could use this spare PC I've just had kinda laying around collecting dust. It's significantly older, I'm not sure if it has dedicated graphics and I'd bet against it.

 

It's not on-hand so I can't get very specific, but just imagine an old HP pre-built for office cubicles or schools like 8-10 years ago. It's running Vista I believe, though I have a Windows 7 Pro key that I will put on it, though I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

My concern is that using my good PC would throttle it's performance and decrease it's lifespan by forcing it to be on 24/7 as a file server (though it does stay on almost 24/7 on idle regardless, as I keep Parsec open in the background in case I want to access it remotely from my other PC / laptop. But if the server needs a decent CPU to actually run well, or FTP software just straight up doesn't support stuff well below Windows 10 (which I doubt, but I don't have the knowledge to prove for or against it), then using my main PC may be my best bet.

 

Either way, I'm not looking for one or the other to be the right answer in biased preference, I'd genuinely be fine using either one so long as one of you lovely people express that there is indeed a correct answer to this predicament.

 

Thank you!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Well first of all, don't use FTP, not secure at all. scp is a better choice. Or use samba/cifs for much better support in windows.

 

Running a ftp or any file server takes almost no performance hit, so it won't matter here

 

 

[SorryBella]

6 minutes ago, 1ndigo said:

or I could use this spare PC I've just had kinda laying around collecting dust. It's significantly older, I'm not sure if it has dedicated graphics and I'd bet against it.

Maybe check on it for like 2 minutes? For basic FTP stuff where youre not fully going to stream through it, you can get away with even a bloody Celeron. But also:

 

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well first of all, don't use FTP, not secure at all. scp is a better choice. Or use samba/cifs for much better support in windows.

 

Running a ftp or any file server takes almost no performance hit, so it won't matter here

 

 

+1.

[1ndigo]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Well first of all, don't use FTP, not secure at all. scp is a better choice. Or use samba/cifs for much better support in windows.

 

Running a ftp or any file server takes almost no performance hit, so it won't matter here

 

 

Thanks for responding! I've never even heard about those protocols before, so thank you for catching a blind side that I wouldn't have even thought to ask about. The phone app I'm using does note FTP specifically, is that just an umbrella term or will it only actually work if I were to use an FTP?

 

Note: (I put an image below showing specifically the fields I'm to fill out if/when I set this up, so hopefully that should help you know if this doesn't support those other protocols.)

 

With the other ones that you mentioned, would there be a specific reason for me to use one over the other? Like I'll take your word for it and use those instead of an FTP, but my files frankly are not that immensely confidential, and I wouldn't mind choosing a slightly faster/more convenient protocol over one with just slightly more security.

 

Also if any of these require approval/access via a distinct button/switch on the PC hosting the server, while that would be secure, it'd be an instant no-go for me, as I'm really just looking for a convenient way to access my files from anywhere.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 minutes ago, 1ndigo said:

Thanks for responding! I've never even heard about those protocols before, so thank you for catching a blind side that I wouldn't have even thought to ask about. The phone app I'm using does note FTP specifically, is that just an umbrella term or will it only actually work if I were to use an FTP?

 

FTP is a sepcific protcol. I wouldn't use ftp at all here. Not worth the security risk. There are better/other apps you can use that will be able to use other protocols.

 

7 minutes ago, 1ndigo said:

 

With the other ones that you mentioned, would there be a specific reason for me to use one over the other? Like I'll take your word for it and use those instead of an FTP, but my files frankly are not that immensely confidential, and I wouldn't mind choosing a slightly faster/more convenient protocol over one with just slightly more security.

FTP sends the password in plain text, so everyone knows your password if there looking. Thats the big worry.

 

What app is this, id pick a different one.

 

[1ndigo]

19 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

Maybe check on it for like 2 minutes? For basic FTP stuff where youre not fully going to stream through it, you can get away with even a bloody Celeron. But also:

 

+1.

Thanks for clearing that up! Also thank you noting your agreement with the other user, it really does help me find a more understandable consensus among the jumble of shit I've had thrown at me from the articles I've been flooded with when researching this topic.

[1ndigo]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

FTP is a sepcific protcol. I wouldn't use ftp at all here. Not worth the security risk. There are better/other apps you can use that will be able to use other protocols.

 

FTP sends the password in plain text, so everyone knows your password if there looking. Thats the big worry.

 

What app is this, id pick a different one.

 

Thanks for the follow up! I meant that I'd take convenience over security among the protocols you'd already recommended, seeing as they'd met your criteria for 'usable'. From the other posts I can definitely tell that FTP is not the way to go here, sorry for the unclear messaging. The app in question is FileManager on the iOS App Store. I'd definitely use a different one if you recommend it, but do note that I have an iPhone SE (2020), so unlike my old phone, it's no longer within the jurisdiction of the CheckRa1n jailbreak, and therefore I'm virtually trapped to whatever is available on the App Store. If there's any form of jailbroken application that would be better in this regard, unfortunately that won't be an applicable option in this scenario.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, 1ndigo said:

Thanks for the follow up! I meant that I'd take convenience over security among the protocols you'd already recommended, seeing as they'd met your criteria for 'usable'. From the other posts I can definitely tell that FTP is not the way to go here, sorry for the unclear messaging. The app in question is FileManager on the iOS App Store. I'd definitely use a different one if you recommend it, but do note that I have an iPhone SE (2020), so unlike my old phone, it's no longer within the jurisdiction of the CheckRa1n jailbreak, and therefore I'm virtually trapped to whatever is available on the App Store. If there's any form of jailbroken application that would be better in this regard, unfortunately that won't be an applicable option in this scenario.

What is your goal here? Copy files to your iphone from your PC?

 

Id just use google drive or simmilar. Much more secure, faster and simpler.

 

Or just use the files app on your iphone, it will mount smb shares natively. 

[Lurick]

Are you trying to copy files locally over wifi, via VPN back home, or via the internet directly?

[1ndigo]

5 hours ago, Lurick said:

Are you trying to copy files locally over wifi, via VPN back home, or via the internet directly?

Thanks for asking! I intend to use this as a convenient way to access my files wherever I go, like permanent access to my files; more or less a massive digital thumb-drive. While I may use it locally for like backing up my laptop to the server, it'd be far from my primary use-case.

[Lurick]

12 minutes ago, 1ndigo said:

Thanks for asking! I intend to use this as a convenient way to access my files wherever I go, like permanent access to my files; more or less a massive digital thumb-drive. While I may use it locally for like backing up my laptop to the server, it'd be far from my primary use-case.

FTP is one of the WORST possible thing to expose to the internet. Like you might as well put a big sign on your network saying "free information, attack here". You will get hit by bots scanning the internet and they will basically wipe everything (best case) or infect that machine and maybe the rest of your network (worst case)

[Lurick]

16 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

So why does ZyXel use an FTP server to share updates?

I mean you can do it but if you just pop up a unsecured FTP server on the internet, expect issues.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had it locked down to read only. Just saying there was someone on the forums earlier this week or last week, left FTP open to the internet for their NAS and they woke up in the morning with nothing on it. Lost like 4TB of data or something iirc.

[mariushm]

I also suggest not using FTP, but simply because it's too much of a pain in the ass to do port forwarding through the router for it and having to mess with PASV  (passive mode) or active mode and all that crap.

 

You could set up a basic http server using apache or nginx and have a SSL certificate using Let's Encrypt or some self signed certificate, and set up some kind of file manager written in PHP or some other language.

You only need to port forward a port on your router, and you can browse using your browser, and the file manager could probably offer things like select multiple files from a folder and download them as a single zip file.

 

Also, the file manager can have stuff like username/pass, as your server uses encryption everything is encrypted ...

 

You can also buy your own domain or get a free domain from a service like afraid.org  (which you'd have to periodically update every time your external ip changes)

 

Companies like zyxel can offer ftp because they can just lease a dedicated server or put multiple servers behind a load balancer in a rack in a datacenter, and they have a fixed ip, and the account is anonymous, all the data is for public access, nobody cares if someone hacks the server because they don't get anything they wouldn't otherwise get.