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We have an FTP site with a single username/password that we provide to people as they need it. We are unable to create a new username/password for every person that might need to access the site, but it cannot be open to anyone.

What we want to do is password protect file folders on the site. We would create a new folder, add data to it, password protect the folder, and notify the person that their data is ready for pick up, providing them with the password. They would then go to the site using our username/password, see the appropriate folder with their name on it, and be prompted for a password when they try to open it. Then, they will use the password we provide to them to open the folder and download the data, and we would delete the folder within an appropriate amount of time.

We looked at "folder lock", but it is used on PCs, not servers, and it requires that the user downloading the data have the software as well.

Does anyone know how we could accomplish this or something similar?

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  • Server OS? Which FTP server?
    – Richard
    Sep 8, 2009 at 17:29
  • Server OS is Windows 2003. I don't know about the FTP Server because I'm not actually the network administrator and don't have access to it except via software like CoreFTP. But see below - we found a solution that works great!
    – user17286
    Sep 8, 2009 at 17:54

5 Answers 5

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You can't do it natively. Have you considered using WinZip (or a similar program) to create password protected zip files instead of trying to use password protected folders?

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  • this is perfect - someone here thought of it, too. We can use the Windows Zip utility (don't even need WinZip) and then add a password. I was concerned about Mac users, but I tested it out and while the GUI didn't work, unzipping via the command prompt did. So this solution is perfect. Thanks!!
    – user17286
    Sep 8, 2009 at 17:53
  • More than glad to help.
    – joeqwerty
    Sep 8, 2009 at 17:54
  • This solutions implies the possibility for everyone with the single username / password to download such an archive. It then simply is a matter of computing time to force the archive open.
    – cora
    Sep 27, 2020 at 18:18
  • There's a ready to use, free and open source application called ProjectSend: projectsend.org It fits your needs perfectly.
    – cora
    Sep 27, 2020 at 18:20
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I agree - I don't know of any way to do it through FTP. Some other options that I have used in the past to share files:

  1. Use LogMeIn file sharing feature. Here you can create a link to a file on your computer and send it out for someone to download with a time limit and download limit.alt text.

  2. Use a service like Drop.io. You can password protect it, set it to expire after a certain date/timeframe. Downside is that it is only free up to 100MB

  3. Setup an .htaccess file pointing to a .htpasswd file for basic web authentication to allow access to specific directories/files. Not FTP access like you were looking for, but sounds most like you were explaining.

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  • that's a neat idea - I'll look into these. Joequerty's solution will work for us fine, but these ideas look like they could be useful, too.
    – user17286
    Sep 8, 2009 at 17:56
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I can't think of anyway FTP could do this. IF you turned this into a web site, you might be able to program something like this. Otherwise, I agree with joeqwerty - use a password on a compressed file. Or consider switching FTP hosts to one that allows you to create separate accounts for each user (ouch... that must be a nightmare if the password gets out - you'd have to change it and notify everyone... I would STRONGLY recommend you switch to a system that allows individual accounts).

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  • the system would allow individual accounts - the business process doesn't. We have hundreds of people who might be provided with data - some are repeat, some are one time only. And we would keep our network guys hopping with creating a new account every time! It's not impossible - just impractical.
    – user17286
    Sep 8, 2009 at 17:58
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You can do it as long as the web-server is Apache based and htaccess support is enabled. Move to the directory you want to protect and create a .htaccess file with the following content:

AuthName "Restricted Area"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /var/www/YOURDOMAIN.COM/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
require valid-user

Please replace Authuserfile directory to point to your webservers directory and add .htpasswd, this is where your password will be stored. Then create that file .htpasswd in the same directory.

Go to this website: https://hostingcanada.org/htpasswd-generator/ And generate an Apache specific md5 salted Password for a specific user. As a result you will get a line like this:

admin:$apr1$rvoxyz57$IgH.HjY2qZS8TUb/5wLse.

Copy this into the newly created .htpasswd file, save it and you are done. The other modes should work as well, but this is how i got it working.

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    Don't enter your password into some random website. Generate it locally.
    – Michael Hampton
    Sep 27, 2020 at 15:18
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FTP is simply the wrong protocol for this. FTP is horribly insecure; it sends passwords over the Internet unencrypted.

What you really want is some sort of web-based system where the users can go to your server, enter their user name and password, then have access to their file(s). I did a quick Google search (keywords: "file download web page") and found a program for Windows that seems to do what you want, for $50. I have never used this but you might want to check it out.

http://www.sharing-file.com/

You could probably make a workable system using SSH, if you don't want to try the above. SSH can be used to transfer files; see the scp command. You will need to create a user on your server for each user who needs a different password for downloading files. Then just put the files in the respective users' My Documents folder and they can download using scp.

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  • There's a ready to use, free and open source application called ProjectSend: projectsend.org It fits the described needs perfectly. Why bring up a payed solution?
    – cora
    Sep 27, 2020 at 18:21
  • When I answered that question, in 2009, I had never heard of ProjectSend. I just checked the Google Code repo for cFTP, the precursor of ProjectSend, and found that this project was started in 2010, after I answered the question. I did mention a free solution using SSH. Please write an answer to this question, recommending ProjectSend. That's so much more helpful than complaining that I didn't do it.
    – steveha
    Sep 28, 2020 at 8:23
  • I would like to apologize to you, steveha. As it seems, this topic came up because of a new answer being posted. I did not realize before that the topic was over a decade old. I am sorry for that misunderstanding and hope you can forgive my mistake.
    – cora
    Sep 28, 2020 at 14:01
  • Of course I accept your apology! Thank you. And seriously, please post an answer to the question, documenting ProjectSend as a good solution to the problem... I would upvote it. This site is supposed to have answers that evolve and update over time.
    – steveha
    Sep 28, 2020 at 20:49

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