Xlight FTP Server - frequently asked questions

1. How to use Xlight FTP server in Windows 98?

Xlight FTP server is complied with SSPI in it. While SSPI function DecryptMessage() call used by Xlight FTP Server for SSL is not supported by default in Windows 98. In order for Xlight to work in Windows 98, user has to install Microsoft's Active Directory Client Extension (DSClient) For Windows 9x. The DSClient can be found in Windows 2000 server CD-Rom (under Client\Win9x\DSclient.exe), or can be downloaded from here

2. How to upgrade ftp server?

Before upgrade, you must stop the running ftp server. If ftp server is running as system service, you need to goto "Control Panel->Manage Tools->Service", find and select "Xlight FTP Server" in service window, click mouse right button, select "Stop" from popup menu and then close the service window. Method 1. Uninstall old version of Xlight, old configuration files are still kept. Reintstall new version to old installation path. (If Xlight was previous running as service, you need to reinstall it as system service). Method 2. download xlight.zip file from here , using this file overwrite the old Xlight ftp server executable file, which by default is installed at c:\program files\xlight . You don't need to reinstall system service, if using this method.

3. How to input IP address ranges

There are three ways to input IP address ranges in Xlight FTP Server. 1. You can use character * to represent IP range 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.255 as 192.168.0.* . 2. You can set IP range directly, such as 192.168.1.15 - 192.168.1.45. 3. You can use subnet mask such as 192.168.0.1/24 or 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0.

4. How to backup Xlight configuration file?

In the Xlight installation direcory (c:\program files\xlight), there are 5 files: "ftpd.hosts","ftpd.option","ftpd.password", "ftpd.rules"."ftpd.users". These 5 files are configuration files of Xlight ftp server. You only need to backup these 5 files. If you use quotas function in Xlight ftp server, you may also need to backup the file ".quota" in the same directory. From the Xlight FTP Server version 3.2 and above, there is a new option to automatically backup configuration files. The option is at [Global Option]->[General]->[Backup After Configuration Change]. You need to select a destination directory for storing configuration backups. To prevent loss configuration backups in case of hard drive failure, you should better choose a different hard drive from where the Xlight FTP Server is installed.

5. How to localize Xlight FTP server?

Xlight FTP server can be localized to any language easily. Inside the "lang" folder of xlight installation path (by default, it is c:\program files\xlight), you can find file "language_en.ini". Open this file, translate words at the right of = to your own language. Then rename this file to "language.ini". After reloading Xlight ftp program, the UI and ftp response will be localized in your own language. If you wish to contribute your own translation and let other people in your country to use your translation, send us the translation file, we are happy to include it with new version of xlight.

6. How to use IPv6 in Xlight FTP server?

You have to install IPv6 protocol stack for Windows. IPv6 protocol stack is provided in Windows XP and 2003, but by default, it is not installed. After IPv6 protocol stack is installed, you will be able to see and choose the item "Dynamic IP(IPv6)" when adding a new virtual server. If you have set SITE or GLOBAL IPv6 address for the NIC, it will also be showed in Server Network Interface window (Note: SITEor GLOBAL IPv6 address of NIC will not be showed in Server Network Interface window, when using windows 2000 IPv6 preview, because some essential APIs are not implemented in IPv6 preview).

7. How to run Xlight FTP Server using non-admin account

Normally you should run Xlight FTP Server using account from administrators group. But from Xlight FTP Server 2.82 and above version, you can run Xlight FTP Server using using non-admin account. You need to setup the followings:

1. Non-admin account must have the write permission to directory where Xlight FTP Server is installed.

2. If you want to use implicit or explicit SSL in the Xlight FTP Server, you need to download utilityWinHttpCertCfg.exe from Microsoft web site and grant the non-admin account access to the private key of certificate. For example, if you want to grant access to the private key of the "MyCertificate" certificate in the "My" certificate store for the TESTUSER account, you should use this command winhttpcertcfg -g -c LOCAL_MACHINE\My -s MyCertificate -a TESTUSER. SSL certificate for Xlight FTP Server is always stored in the "My" certificate store of LOCAL_MACHINE.

3. If you want to use SSH2/SFTP in the Xlight FTP Server, you need to goto folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto". For RSA SSH host key, goto sub-folder "RSA\MachineKeys"; for DSS SSH host key, goto sub-folder "DSS\MachineKeys". You will find several files under it, each file is related to a machine key. You will need find SSH host key file used by Xlight and give non-admin account read permission to it. Because file name in "MachineKeys" folder is in UUID format, you can not directly find Xlight SSH host key file by name. But you can use one of the following three method to give non-admin account read permission.

Give the non-admin account read only permission to folder "MachineKeys" and all files in it.
If you know the time when the SSH host key is created, you can probably find the file used by Xlight FTP Server from its modification time.
You can download the tool "KeyPal.exe" from "http://www.jensign.com/KeyPal/". From the KeyPal console, press the letter "M" for displaying the keys from machine keystore. From the returned machine key list, find the name starting with "ssh-", it is Xlight SSH host key. Then press the letter "U" from KeyPal console, enter the key container number from previous machine key list. A uniquecontainer name will be displayed. This is the file name for Xlight SSH host key in the "MachineKeys" folder.

Select the key file, click mouse right button. From the menu, select the "Properities" and then the "Security" tab. Grant the read permission to this file to the non-admin user.