Password Change Problem in Server

[Mark Manning]

Situation #1: Multiple user accounts with multiple passwords. Want to change the passwords slightly.

What happens: If the same password is kept but the case changes on the letters - the server does not seem to update the password. (So abcd1234 -> ABCD1234 does not seem to change.) Instead, I have to change it to something like "a" and then change it back to "1234abcd".

Situation #2: If I change the password for someone but keep the same length, the password doesn't change on the server.

What happens: If I have abcd1234 and I change it to 1234abcd - it does not change. (Fix - same as above.)

Situation #3: If I remove the server from a system and then later on re-install it, the old settings are retained. However, they are not shown (ie: There are no accounts shown). If I try to recreate the accounts the server will sometimes say "That account already exists" even though it is not there - or - the account will have the old password.

Possible Solution: Since I'm not one of the people who are working on this project but since I do debug lots of programs; my best guess is that the server is not actually deleting the account information either when it is uninstalled or when the administrator says to delete the accounts. (I know - kind of obvious! :-) )

Anyway, just upgraded to the latest release earlier this week. (0.9.30).

Almost forgot: When the "X" is clicked on (Windows OS version) this kills the server. Could there be an option to not kill the server and instead just close the dialog? Can't tell you how many times I've accidentally clicked the "X" instead of the "-". :-)

[Tim Kosse]

Almost sounds like FileZilla Server.xml isn't writable by the service. Check your filesystem permissions. By default the server service runs under the SYSTEM account, it needs permissions to write to the settings file.

The program you are closing is just the administration interface, the actual server is running in the background.

Note that 0.9.30 is not the latest release, 0.9.31 has been out for quite some time already.

[Mark Manning]

Replying to codesquid:

Almost sounds like FileZilla Server.xml isn't writable by the service. Check your filesystem permissions. By default the server service runs under the SYSTEM account, it needs permissions to write to the settings file.

When working with FileZilla (or any other program on the server) I'm always logged in under Admin with full privileges. Also, remember that I said I COULD change the account information - it's just that I had to first set it to "a" and then back to a larger password. If I could not write to the file - I would not have been able to modify it at all. :-)

The program you are closing is just the administration interface, the actual server is running in the background.

I do not believe that you read my statement correctly. I said I had completely uninstalled FileZilla server (my last update was actually to 0.9.31 - I saw this happen when I was going from 0.9.30 to 0.9.31 but I typed 0.9.30 by mistake. Sorry! :-/.

I'd like to add that if you have a top level directory (such as FTP) and you have subdirectories (like Photos, Videos (home movies), and directories for each user who has access to the FTP server) and you make the top level directory the home directory for everyone that no matter what you put for the subdirectories (like not to show up) - they all act like the top level directory's privileges. HOWEVER! If you do not designate _any_ directory as the user's home directory - then the subdirectories act appropriately.

To say that again in a slightly different way: I made the FTP directory everyone's home directory (ie: H D:\FTP on the display). I then made user Scott's (my brother) not be able to see the directory called "Software" (ie: removed all privileges to it). When I tested this by logging in under his account - I could still see all of the subdirectories. Even the "Software" directory. Even though I removed all of the checkmarks next to "Read, Write, List, etc...". After deleting the account completely (mainly because I was frustrated after a while of trying to get this to work) I then re-created the account (which had the password already on the account [problem noted in first post]). This time I did not designate a home account and selected the options to not allow him access to the Software directory and FileZilla correctly followed my instructions.

Last, but not least - a suggestion: FileZilla (on the console) says that it is sending the updates to the server but it can sometimes take a few minutes for the server to update. (Unknown why.) Perhaps a message on the console that says something like "Sending updates to the server.\nIt may take a few minutes for the server to propagate the update." or something similar?

Note that 0.9.30 is not the latest release, 0.9.31 has been out for quite some time already.

Yeah, I know - I mistyped. Sorry! :-P

[Tim Kosse]

Which client are you using? From the description it sounds like you're having caching problems.

In case you're using FileZilla Client, restart it after you made changes to the serve configuration so that all caches are flushed. If you're using any browser, empty the browser cache after all changes to the server configuration. Do similar things with all other third-party clients.

[Mark Manning]

Replying to codesquid:

Which client are you using? From the description it sounds like you're having caching problems.

In case you're using FileZilla Client, restart it after you made changes to the serve configuration so that all caches are flushed. If you're using any browser, empty the browser cache after all changes to the server configuration. Do similar things with all other third-party clients.

That is probably what is causing the delay in changes vs usage. I'll keep that in mind for the future. Thanks! :-)

[Mark Manning]

Er???

Why is this now closed? codesquid's reply only covered one part of my message. ???

[Tim Kosse]

Ticket submission guidelines say to only use a ticket for one problem/question.

All settings changes are instantaneous.

The server keeps running even if you close the admin interface, two separate programs.