Scott’s using Windows XP Professional and wants to know if he can have an FTP service running. Sure he can, and so can you. Microsoft included an FTP service with Windows XP, it just doesn’t get installed and enabled by default. Adding it to your system will let others, using an FTP client, connect to your system to transfer files.
Add/Remove Windows Components – Windows Components Wizard
- Start – Control Panel – Add/Remove Programs.
- On the left-hand side, choose Add/Remove Windows Components
- Select the entry for Internet Information Services (IIS) and click the Details button
- Check the box for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service, then click OK enough times to close all the dialog boxes.
Now you can use the MMC to configure your newly-added service. Got to Start » Programs » Administrative Tools, then click Internet Information Services. This will load MMC with the IIS snap-in. Expand the entry for your computername, then for FTP Sites. Right-click the Default site and select Properties. Here you can configure what directory to use, what accounts to allow, etc. Also on that right-click context menu are Stop and Start.
To test the server, you can use IE or another web browser – just use the name of your system with ftp:// on the front of the URL instead of http://