ZFTPServer Suite

zFTPServer Suite is a free (as in beer) Windows FTP server. It has an innovative way of administrate folders and resources, a remote administration GUI, is scriptable and extensible.zFTPServer Suite started as a hobby project of Nicklas Bergfeldt, and is now developed at Västgöta-Data AB. Bergfeldt is still the lead developer of zFTPServer Suite. zFTPServer Suite is implemented in Borland Delphi and consists of some 600kLOC of which almost all is written by Bergfeldt (apart from some 10% consisting of standard components).

History

In 2000 Bergfeldt searched for a FTP server for his home network, but he found that none of the existing servers had all the features he wanted. After realising this he soon started to code a FTP server of his own. First it was only meant to be used by himself, but he later let his friends use it as well. He begun coding the fundamental framework first, this includes the virtual file system and the user/group management.

In 2003 one of the major Swedish computer papers, DatorMagazin, announced a code contest. The first price winner received a rather pricy laptop. The contest required a Swedish translation, some kind of documentation and an installation program. Bergfeldt saw this as an opportunity to lift his program to the next level and make it ready for a broader audience. Bergfeldt was awarded the first place prize for zFTPServer Suite. [DatorMagazin, "Vinnarna av Programmeringstävlingen", Vol 3. Hjemmet Mortensen, 2004] During the time from the contest was announced to the time the prize was delivered, the laptop has dropped significantly in price. Bergfeldt successfully argued that he should receive a laptop that was as expensive as the original laptop was when the contest was announced.

Winning the contest resulted in that a lot of users tested zFTPServer Suite. And, as zFTPServer Suite web page ran on Bergfeldt's home web server over an ADSL-connection, things started to get a little bit slow. In addition to this the application downloaded auto-updates from his web server. As neither his Internet connection nor his server was designed for this load he effectively DDOSed himself.

As zFTPServer Suite grew more popular, it was no longer possible to serve it from his home server. At that time he asked the university for which he worked to host it, which they did for several years.

In 2007 Bergfeldt ended his employment in the university to form the IT-consultant company Västgöta-Data. Bergfeldt now works as Technical Officer of Västgöta-Data, and is still the lead developer of zFTPServer Suite. Bergfeldt still owns the copyright of zFTPServer Suite.

Future

The zFTPServer Suite is free of charge for corporate or personal use alike, something that will not change. Over the years zFTPServer Suite has evolved into one of very best FTP-servers available for Windows, while at the same time it has remained free of charge.

Västgöta-Data will profit from zFTPServer Suite by offering commercial priority support, and advanced extension modules. The extensions offer advanced add-on functionality targeted at both commercial applications as well as advanced users that want the best in customizability, scriptability and performance.

We also plan to add more features available in the free version (like encrypted remote administration).

Planned future extensions: [ [http://www.zftpserver.com/extensions.php zFTPServer Suite - A fast and powerful Windows FTP-Server - Features ] ]

*SFTP/SSH support

Features

zFTPServer Suite (free)

*Client-Server architecture. The GUI connects to the administration port of the server deamon through a network connection. This makes it easy to administrate multiple servers from a single remote GUI.
*Virtual File System. The folder structure as presented to the ftp user does not nessicarily correspond to the on-disk folder structure. Multiple windows folders can be added to a single ftp-folder. The ftp folder then contains the merged content of the windows folders. This also provides for space balancing on multiple disks.
* Scripted administration. The server accepts custom scripts and program to connect to the administration port. This can be utilized by the custom scripts to perform the same tasks as the administration GUI in an automatic way.
* Advanced but user friendly user management, with advanced expiration rules.
* IP restriction management.
* Anti-hammering.
* FTPS (SSL/TLS) encryption.
* Automatic updates.
* Fast transfer speed.
* Low on system resources.
* And much more...

Extensions

Events and Messages : Reactive

This extension lets the ftp server react and execute custom scripts or programs on specific events. This feature may be used to perform specific tasks on e.g. file upload, user login or user logout.

Events and Messages : Proactive

This extension lets the server launch custom scripts or programs based on the initiation of specific events, i.e. react to events before they happen, and also lets the script send feedback to the server. This can be used to build advanced business rules, to e.g. restrict login to specific times or restrict upload on specific files or filetypes.

Authentication Integration for Windows

With this extension activated zFTPServer Suite hands over the authentication of unknown users to Windows. If the user exists as a windows user she is allowed to log in. The zFTPServer Suite user settings does also apply to windows authenticated users. This extension makes it almost trivial to manage FTP access where users already exists in windows. This extension can use the local computer, any computer on the network, a primary domain controller or an active directory, for credentials authentivation.

Speed Scheduler

Mostly targeted at home users, the Speed Scheduler extension allows administrators to throttle FTP-server bandwidth to idle time when you are away from the computer. Speed Scheduler allows administrators both to throttle upload as well as download speed based on advanced hierarchical rule sets and time constraints. Rules can of cource be ignored for local network access. (Global "per user" bandwidth settings are available in the free version.)

SFTP

Mostly targeted at enterprise users, the SFTP extension allows files to be transfered securely using the firewall friendly SFTP protocol. With this extension zFTPServer will support not only FTPS (SSL/TLS) but also SFTP version 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the SSH file transfer protocol.

Audience

The intended audiences are personal or corporate users with high demand on reliability, transfer speed and customisation.

zFTPServer Suite is highly customizable making it usable for users which need to implement advanced business rules. The numerous event tokens, scripting abilities and the possibility to execute external scripts means it can be used as an integration server for corporate or organisational needs.

Other information

* 600kLOC
* Implemented in Borland Delphi
* First Changelog entry: 2002-09-30
* 500.000 downloads from 110 countries [ [http://www.vastgotadata.se/eng/zftpserver.php zFTPServer Commercial Priority Support ] ]
* Translated to 17 languages [ [http://www.vastgotadata.se/eng/index.php Västgöta-Data ] ]

External links

* [http://www.zftpserver.com/?wiki zFTPServer Suite Official web page]

* [http://forum.zftpserver.com/ zFTPServer Suite forum]

References