When a Windows NT Server computer is running the FTP Server service, other computers using the FTP utility can connect to the server and transfer files. The FTP Server service supports all Windows NT ftp client commands. Non-Microsoft versions of FTP clients might contain commands that are not supported. The FTP Server service is implemented as a multithreaded Win32 service that complies with the requirements defined in Requests for Comments (RFCs) 959 and 1123.
The FTP Server service is integrated with the Windows NT security model. Users connecting to the FTP Server service are authenticated based on their Windows NT user accounts and receive access based on their user profiles. For this reason, it is recommended that the FTP Server service be installed on an NTFS partition so that the files and directories made available via FTP can be secured.
Caution The FTP Server protocol relies on the ability to pass user passwords over the network without data encryption. A user with physical access to the network could examine user passwords during the FTP validation process.
The following topics are included in this chapter:
For information about using performance counters to monitor FTP Server traffic, see Chapter 17, "Using Performance Monitor with TCP/IP Services."