Change Virtual Host's IP address

Hi John,

I'll answer the ProFTPd and shared IPs question now, but I'll have to check on the status of reverting an SSL domain to a name-based host (this feature is planned, but I'm not sure if it has been implemented yet). The only time you need an IP for FTP hosting is if you need anonymous access based on domain. The FTP protocol doesn't support name-based hosts.

It is perhaps confusing in the Virtualmin GUI, as it seems like folks assume that to allow FTP access, they have to enable FTP virtual hosting for the domain (which requires a dedicated IP). This is not the case. FTP access is always available for users that you enable it for, assuming you have an FTP server installed and running. What you enable for a domain is just anonymous FTP access based on domain name. Almost no one needs this capability anymore.

Maybe a couple of examples will clarify what I mean:

Standard FTP hosting:

User Joe wants to upload some files and he's never been able to figure out how to use sftp or scp or fish, so he wants to use CuteFTP (and he hasn't figured out how to turn on any of the secure extensions to CuteFTP, even though they are very easy to use).

So, he logs in to his domain "newbiesunlimited.com" using his username "joe.newbiesunlimited".

The FTP server drops him right into his home directory /home/newbiesunlimited. He can now upload his files and do whatever other fun stuff he wants to do with them. You know, cool stuff like "chmod -R 777 *" (just kidding, don't ever do this!).

Note that he logged in to newbiesunlimited.com, just like he expects to be able to. This isn't virtual domain FTP hosting. It's just FTP with chrooting to the users home directory. It's great for the vast majority of users. Almost no one (really...it's like 1% of people hosting sites, if not less) needs more.

Second use case, domain-based FTP hosting:

This user is Bob, and he's a big-time software vendor. His product can perform automatic updates on itself (super cool and high tech!). These updates use FTP to download the files, and they have a very specific path that is hard-coded in the software, so it can't be changed just because he's moving to a new hosting provider, and migrating to HTTP or some other protocol like rsync would be difficult since the software is written in a now-defunct Pascal dialect that never had an HTTP library.

So, he signs up for a virtual FTP domain, gets his own IP, and his anonymous users can download from his FTP server with a path just like the software expects: ftp.oldtimeysoft.com/pub/update

Clear as mud now?

The domain FTP enable option has always bugged me, as it causes so many questions, but I've never been able to figure out how to explain this without going into ridiculous detail...which won't fit into the title of the option. In Virtualmin Pro (and subsequent GPL releases) I've added online help to explain the difference, but I don't know if that will really help make this intuitive. It's not a very intuitive concept, since it's just such a silly limitation of the protocol and no one has seen fit to correct it (all things that get updated in FTP has happened via concensus rather than any standard...there are numerous competing secure variants of FTP, for example).

Anyway, I hope this helps. I'll get back to you on the other issue as soon as I've had a chance to find out whether it exists yet and if not, I'll get an ETA.

Don, just use Cute FTPs defaults and auto detect host. THere are no special settings