Pete, 

> I'm actually very interested in what you found here.  Are the 
> drives you're storing the data on local to the FTP server or 
> are they remove on another server (a file share somewhere)?

Our case is simple: drives local to server.

> In my implementation, the WS_FTP Server is a front end to 
> another process.  Users upload files to the server which 
> actually stores them on a remote filestore where another 
> process picks up the files and processes them.  
> Unfortunately, WS_FTP Server does not understand UNC paths 
> (ala \\Server1\fileshare-name) so you have to use drive 
> letter mappings (ala F:\) for connectivity to the remote 
> share.  Well, drive mappings only exist when a user is logged 
> on and they exist within the users's context.  This means 
> that for my WS_FTP server to be able to see my remote 
> filestore I have to have a user logged onto the console 24x7 
> -- and make sure no one logs the user off.  If the user is 
> logged off, the drive mapping disappears and poof -- no 
> upload capability.  IpSwitch has been promising me for 2 
> releases that they would implement UNC's but, alas, they have 
> not.  If anyone has found otherwise, please reply to this thread.

This is disappointing to hear. Our use case right now is local, but I'm
pretty surprised that UNC isn't supported.

> If you want to be as "safe" as possible, I would NOT run your 
> WS_FTP server under the local system account.  Create a new 
> account with limited permissions and access to only the 
> specific filesystem locations necessary.  That way, god 
> forbid, if an exploit was discovered in WS_FTP and someone 
> was able to hijack permissions or execute code under the 
> WS_FTP Server process they would be running within a limited 
> access account as opposed to the SYSTEM account.  Just my $0.02.

Good point. I hadn't looked at it that way--being more concerned with why
the SYSTEM account wouldn't have file permissions in the first place.

Regards,

-- Randy


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