Is it possible? FTP question

Hello, I am wondering if it is possible to create a subdomain for a user, for example USERNAME.site.com, and have USERNAME FTP access to that subdomain, where he can upload what he wants, of course with a limit in space.

I've been experimenting and created an extra ftp user, other than my own, and I noticed when you login with this: ftp://USERNAME:PASSWORD@ftp.site.com and you upload a file there, you can't hot link to that file, it just gives the url ftp://ftp.site.com/test.jpg. Does anyone even know where these files are hosted???

So my question, I'm just wondering if I can setup a subdomain so that the user can FTP anything he wants into it, for example, say the user uploads a picture, he can access it through USERNAME.site.com/picture.jpg

Thanks!

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Does anyone even know where these files are hosted???

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They will be in the new user's home-directory. At DreamHost, each user you create is a real Unix machine user, with their own home-directory. When you log-in via FTP, you will see the home directory of the user you used to log-in.

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I'm just wondering if I can setup a subdomain so that the user can FTP anything he wants into it, for example, say the user uploads a picture, he can access it through USERNAME.site.com/picture.jpg

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Yes, simply specify your new user as the "FTP user / CGI-runs-as user:" when adding the sub-domain to the hosting system via the panel at Domains -> Manage Domains -> Add New Domain / Sub-Domain. This should create a new web-directory in the new user's home directory, by default this will have the same name as the sub-domain.

Mark

You may have done this already but if you haven't you'll have to add the sub domain under Domains->Manage Domains, this will make the directory web accessible.

Now you will have to explain to your users to link to the files they will need to use http://username.site.com/filename

Dreamhost don't offer anonymous FTP access unless you purchase a unique IP address for the domain you wish to allow FTP access too.

Hello Raz & Shonky, thanks for the replies.

I've created a subdomain, username.site.com, I've given the user FTP privilege when setting up the subdomain. Now when I login with the test user, I only see 2 folders, logs, and maildir, I have uploaded an index.html file just to see if username.site.com works, but it when I go to that URL I get a "Server not found" error, does it take time for the DNS to setup everything up??

Also, when I create a subdomain, should I see it when I log in with my admin FTP account??

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I've given the user FTP privilege when setting up the subdomain. Now when I login with the test user, I only see 2 folders, logs, and maildir

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Are you sure you specified the new user as the "FTP user / CGI-runs-as user:" when you added the domain? If you did, you should see the web-directory for the sub-domain in that users home-directory, as well as the logs and maildir directories. As I said, this web-directory will by default have the same name as the sub-domain (ie: username.site.com), this is where the publicly accessible site files for the sub-domain must be uploaded to.

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does it take time for the DNS to setup everything up??

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It does take some time for a sub-domain to become fully usable, but this is generally shorter than the time taken for a full domain.

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when I create a subdomain, should I see it when I log in with my admin FTP account??

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No, unless you specified the admin user as the "FTP user / CGI-runs-as user:" when adding the sub-domain.

Mark

thanks everyone! I think I got it!! :)

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thanks everyone! I think I got it!! :)

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No problem, I am glad you have it under control now.

The DreamHost way of doing things can seem a little complex, especially if you are coming from another host that does things differently. However, once you realize that the users that you create are full Unix machine users, the same as your initial DreamHost-created 'admin' user, with their own home-directories etc, you will find the DreamHost way extremely versatile.

Good luck.

Mark