Ami Express FTP Server

Version 5.5.0 of Ami-Express has introduced a new FTP Direct Server capability.

The new FTP Direct server is different to the previous FTP capability which was implemented as a transfer protocol and was only started at upload/download time and still required the user to connect via traditional telnet method.

The FTP Direct server allows the user to log on purely via FTP using their normal /X username and password. Initially they will see a list of conferences displayed as directories and then within those conferences they will see a file list built up from the actual files uploaded to the bbs.

To enable the FTP Direct functionality the sysop needs to specify a FTPPORT in the ACP.info and which nodes should be used for FTP connections by putting FTP tooltype in each node.info - this is a similar approach to that used when setting up native telnet.

The sysop should also specify FTPDATAPORT in either bbsconfig.info or in relevant node.info files. This tooltype is shared with the old FTP protocol system but this should not be a problem. You will need to specify a list of data ports so that when multiple users are connected the system is still able to function. Make sure you specify enough ports according to however many nodes you have.

This is the minimal setup required to get FTP Direct server access up and running.

There are additional configuration options to control which confs can be accessed via ftp, how many days worth of files are displayed, whether uploads are allowed via ftp in each conf and whether the file listings are built from the actual conference download path folder contents or from the conference file listings.

FTP uploads and downloads can achieve much higher CPS than when transferring files over telnet. All files transferred will update the /X stats in the same way as if the files were transferred by telnet and the ratios and file limits will all be appled in the same way as with telnet.

When uploading file id's will be extracted and the files automatically put online. If the files do not have file id's then they will be saved as part uploads and the user will be asked to provide the file id when they next log on via telnet.

When the ftp server is running in FTP_NO_DIRLIST mode, it can handle a single level of subfolders within the conference folder.

eg the following structure is valid if bbs:conf02/downloads is the download path for conf2.

bbs:conf02/downloads/filesa/file1.zip
bbs:conf02/downloads/filesa/file2.zip
bbs:conf02/downloads/filesb/file3.zip
bbs:conf02/downloads/filesb/file4.zip
bbs:conf02/downloads/filesc/file5.zip

The user would see filesa filesb filesc as subfolders when logging on via ftp.

In addition long filenames are supported when downloading via ftp. So if you had an archive conf for example with lots of files with long filenames you could make them available via ftp without having to rename them all.