Advanced Configuration Parameters for FTP Server Service

This section presents configuration parameters that affect the behavior of the FTP Server service and that can be modified only through Registry Editor. After you modify any of these value entries, you must restart the FTP Server service for the changes to take effect.

Caution You can impair or disable Windows NT if you make incorrect changes in the Registry while using Registry Editor. Whenever possible, use administrative tools such as Control Panel to make configuration changes, rather than using Registry Editor. If you make errors while changing values with Registry Editor, you will not be warned, because Registry Editor does not recognize semantic errors.

To make changes to the FTP Server service configuration using Registry Editor

Run the REGEDT32.EXE program from File Manager or Program Manager.

– Or –

At the command prompt, type the start regedt32 command, and then press ENTER.

When the Registry Editor window appears, you can press F1 to get Help on how to make changes in Registry Editor.

In Registry Editor, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE On Local Machine, and then click the icons for the SYSTEM subtree until you reach this subkey:

..\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ftpsvc\Parameters

All of the parameters described here are located under this Registry subkey.

You must restart the FTP Server service for the changes to take effect.

The following list describes the value entries for FTP Server service parameters that can only be set by adding an entry or changing their values in Registry Editor. These value entries do not appear by default in the Registry, so you must add an entry if you want to change its default value.

AnnotateDirectories

Data type = REG_DWORD
Range = 0 or 1
Default = 0 (false—that is, directory annotation is off)

This value entry defines the default behavior of directory annotation for newly connected users. Directory descriptions are used to inform FTP users of the contents of a directory on the server. The directory description is saved in a file named ~FTPSVC~.CKM, which is usually a hidden file. When this value is 1, directory annotation is on.

ExitMessage

Data type = REG_SZ
Range = String
Default = "Goodbye."

This value entry defines a signoff message that will be sent to FTP clients upon receipt of a quit command.

GreetingMessage

Data type = REG_MULTI_SZ
Range = String
Default = None (no special greeting message)

This value entry defines the message to be sent to new clients after their accounts have been validated. In accordance with Internet behavior, if the client logs on as anonymous and specifies an identity that starts with a minus sign (–), this greeting message is not sent.

LogAnonymous

Data type = REG_DWORD
Range = 0 or 1
Default = 0 (false—that is, do not log successful anonymous logons)

This value entry enables or disables logging of anonymous logons in the System event log.

LogNonAnonymous

Data type = REG_DWORD
Range = 0 or 1
Default = 0 (false—that is, do not log successful nonanonymous logons)

This value entry enables or disables logging of nonanonymous logons in the System event log.

LogFileAccess

Data type = REG_DWORD
Range = 0-2
Default = 0 (do not log file accesses to FTPSVC.LOG)

This value entry specifies the logging behavior of FTP Server file access. Allowable values are:

0	Do not log file accesses (default)
1	Log file accesses to FTPSVC.LOG in the service's current directory, typically \systemroot\SYSTEM32.
2	Log file accesses to FTyymmdd.LOG, where yy is the current year, mm is the current month, and dd is the current day. The log file is located in the service's current directory, typically \systemroot\SYSTEM32. New log files are opened daily, as necessary.

For each file opened by the FTP Server, the service log will contain a single line entry in the following format:

IPAddress username action path date_time

ip_address is the client computer's IP address
username is the user's name (or password for anonymous logons)
action is either "opened," "created," or "appended"
path is the fully qualified path of the file acted upon
date_time is the date and time the action took place

Entries are also written to the log whenever the FTP Server starts or stops. For example:

************** FTP SERVER SERVICE STARTING Fri Apr 29 10:28:49 1994
11.101.199.173 daveo opened /tmp\tst.bat Fri Apr 29 10:29:42 1994
11.101.199.173 daveo created /tmp\new.txt Fri Apr 29 10:30:25 1994
11.101.199.173 daveo appended /tmp\new.txt Fri Apr 29 10:33:04 1994
************** FTP SERVER SERVICE STOPPING Fri Apr 29 10:33:08 1994

LogFileDirectory

Data type = REG_SZ
Default = \systemroot\SYSTEM32

This value entry specifies the target directory for the log file or files. The target directory does not have to reside on the system partition.

LowercaseFiles

Data type = REG_DWORD
Range = 0 or 1
Default = 0 (do not map filenames to lowercase)

If this value entry is nonzero, all filenames returned by the list and nlst commands are mapped to lowercase for noncase-preserving file systems. This mapping only occurs when a directory listing is requested on a noncase-preserving file system. If this value is 0, case in all filenames is unaltered. Currently, FAT is the only noncase-preserving file system supported under Windows NT, so this flag has no effect when retrieving listings on HPFS or NTFS partitions.

MaxClientsMessage

Data type = REG_SZ
Range = String
Default = "Maximum clients reached, service unavailable."

This value entry specifies the message to be sent to an FTP client if the maximum number of clients has been reached or exceeded. This message indicates that the server is refusing additional clients because it is currently servicing the maximum number of connections (as specified in the FTP Service dialog box or the MaxConnections value in the Registry).

MsdosDirOutput

Data type = REG_DWORD
Range = 0 or 1
Default = 1 (true—that is, directory listings will look like MS-DOS)

This value entry specifies the default behavior for whether the output of the list command looks like the output of the MS-DOS dir command or the output of the UNIX ls command. This value also controls the direction of slashes in paths sent by the pwd command.

When this value is 1, directory listings look like MS-DOS listings, and the path will contain backward slashes ( \ ). If this value is 0, listings look like UNIX listings, and the path contains forward slashes (/ ).

The following Registry parameters can be set using the options available when configuring the FTP Server service in the Network Settings dialog box:

AllowAnonymous
AnonymousOnly
AnonymousUsername
ConnectionTimeout
HomeDirectory
MaxConnections

The following Registry parameters can be set using the options available when you select the FTP Server icon in Control Panel and then choose the Security button:

ReadAccessMask
WriteAccessMask

The ranges of values that can be entered for these parameters in Registry Editor are the same as those described in the related dialog boxes earlier in this chapter. You should use only the FTP Server service dialog boxes to set these values.