Getting FTP as secure as possible?

I will take a look into webdav later on tonight when I finish my Archaeology paper.

I understand the risks of running ftp, but just didn't know if it left me exposed to anything other than unauthorized people getting my data.

Its just media for the most part, with Linux iso's, drivers, freeware, and such, so no personal data really other than some pictures.

But please keep the end user easy alternatives coming, as I really need to find a more longterm solution than ftp I think.

With webDAV installed you go to my computer map --> network drive --> put in the https or ftp address and then username and password on first connect.

Done. It's always available as a local drag and drop folder. Couldn't be more simpler. :D

Just don't tell people the URL?

Hmmm, if its as simple as that then I will definitely have to check it out. I would really prefer a secure connection instead of ftp.

As for not telling people the address, that's not really the issue. As even if I was on a secure connection if my family gave the address to another person, ftp or secure they are in.

The issue is that I can't monitor where my users are logging in from. FTP doesn't employ any type of encryption of the transmissions, so anything, even usernames and passwords are available to be grabbed up by anyone sniffing packets somewhere in between my users computers and my server.

I can't do anything about them giving away their login information or the servers address whether I was using a secure protocol or ftp. If the information gets leaked, its leaked.

But I want to limit random strangers from easily getting access.

Looks like I am going to have to look into webDAV or something similar, as ftp over firefox isn't working for them on bigger files.

Firefox doesn't run passive ftp, and after a large amount has been downloaded it just stops and says it can't dl or something according to them. Getting an exact error message from them is impossible it seems.

Its not timeout, as I've set the server to 100,000 seconds instead of 900, as i thought that was the issue, but that didn't fix it.