Hello,
I'm looking to set up an FTP server on my late-2014 Mac Mini, & don't really want to go mucking round in the Terminal to do it. True, I used to mess with MS DOS, as most of us probably did, but that was about 16 years ago, which seems like eons now.
I've looked at a number of possibilities:
For $40, CrushFTP seemed like a great choice, but after dinking round with it's web interface, I concluded it was not very user-friendly.
Wsftp has changed and is now strictly for business, it looks like, and, with a price tag North of $700, too rich for my blood.
rumpus 8 looks great, but again, the price is a little steep, at $500 for the unlimited user version.
OS X Server, at $20, looks like an excellent choice, but as I understand it, starting with Lion Server, Apple removed the GUI tools for the FTP server, from the server app, again necessitating the need to muck round in the Terminal.
I've also contemplated a VMWare setup, using Win XP or newer, and the fileZilla server. This might not be a bad choice, but again, not sure how easy it would be to set Windows up under VMWare, etc. Don't wanna lay out a giant amount of bread on this setup, as I'm strictly a Mac guy, and would only be using Windows for that - nothing else.
My final alternative, a cute little Cocoa front-end to PureFTPd, called PureFTPd Manager. This front-end is nearly 100% VoiceOver accessible, it's totally free, is simple to set up, and the source code is freely available from the developer's website, all he asks is copies of the patches.
I've used this app, in the past, and have had decent luck with it. Now, however, I wish to use it on my Mac Mini, running El Capitan, but it was never written to work with the newest OS, best OS it'll work with is Lion, 10.7.5.
The biggest problem I've had with PureFTPd Manager has been, even under Snow Leopard & Lion, that, when defining "Virtual Folders" for users, the app has a tendency to crash, especially when attempting to add more than 1 virtual folder for a user.
The method for adding these folders was to creat the user, under the app's "User Manager", then click on the "Virtual Folders" tab, use VO to navigate to the browser, interact with it, navigate to the desired folder (root of the data drive, usually), turn cursor tracking off, navigate to the desired folder, make sure "Mouse Keys" was enabled, in order to do the actual mouse click, route the mouse cursor to the VO cursor, perform the mouse click, with the numpad 5, stop interacting with the browser, re-enable cursor tracking, and navigate to the virtual folders table, and verify that the virtual folder was, in fact, created for this user. For successsive virtual folders, you repeat the process. Yes, this method was clumsy, but it worked.
I'm not a programmer, so I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to fix this app, so it was easier to define virtual folders with VoiceOver, and to alleviate the crashing issue when doing so. Since the source code is freely available, from the dev's website, my question to the AppleVis community is this; If there's an app developer out there, who is knowledgeable in XCode, knows the Cocoa interface, knows how to make things VO-accessible, and would be willing to accept the challenge, would someone be willing to port this app over to El Capitan, correct any accessibility issues, and make it fully stable when defining virtual folders?
I was, for a time, in contact with an app developer, by the name of Travis Siegel, but last time I attempted to eMail him, the message bounced, and I have no clue where he's gone? Also, I've eMailed the original dev, at least twice, over the last couple years. Each time I have, the messages haven't bounced, so they're going somewhere, but whether or not they're even being read is unknown.
I think, as Travis did, this app would be a huge help to those, in the blindness community, who are interested in setting up an FTP server, but don't wish to spend the bucks, or lack Terminal expertise.
Both the source, and universal binaries can be found at the following website: http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/pureftpd/. You'll see, in the binary distro, versions are included for older versions of OS X, as well as Tiger thru SL. Also, they come bundled with the version of PureFTPd, which was available at that time.
The only other accessibility issues I found with this front-end, involved the mechanism for setting up a time when users could & couldn't use the server (this is under the "User Manager" section of the app), and the initial screen, both prior to the actual setup, then again, once setup is complete. VO simply would say that there was nothing there.
Any help with this will be greatly appreciated, and I'll be more than willing to be a beta tester for any revamped version of the GUI!
Best Regards,
Ron
Comments
PureFTPD
I also was trying to get it working on 10.11 but no luck.
Have you ever found a solution or found front-end Gui for Apple's own FTP-Server?
PureFTPD Manager
Hello,
No, I've not found any other GUI-based solution for the Mac, except Rumpus, but at $500, that's a little bit pricy.
Closest thing I've found was OS X Server itself. I tried setting it up, but encountered a strange problem. Under El Capitan Server, I was unable to connect to a friend's ShoutCAST stream, via iTunes, while the DNS server was active. If I turned the server off, then I was able to connect. If I turned the server back on, after connecting to the stream, the stream played fine.
Eventually, I reformatted the HD and put the regular copy of El Capitan back on it.
I've been hoping that a dev would come along, read my post, and take up the challenge. So far, that hasn't happened. If I could still run SL or Lion, I could use the PureFTPd manager and put up with the crashing issue I mentioned in my post, but unfortunately I can't. Neither my MBP, nor Mac mini will run Lion. The Mini is a late 2014 machine, and the MBP is a late 2011 model.
I do know a developer who might be able to help, unfortunately he's lacking a useable Mac.
HTH?
Ron
I have used Crushftp (costs
I have used Crushftp (costs starts at $40). It works but is a clumsy Java produkt. Can be tested unlicensed. Presently I use an eval. version of Rumpus. Way too expensive but looks nice.
Round 2005 I used a good Frontend built by an Italian (http://www.gritsch-soft.com) but he stopped support and now cannot find to test if it maybe still works. Developer of PureFTPd does not react to mail.
So we are left to either a clumsy product or unplayable product or .....
CrushFTP Lack of Accessibility & Installation Issues
Hello,
Recently, I decided to try my luck with the CrushFTP server again, since it's been probably 6 years since I last looked at it, and about 8 years since a user on this site wrote to the dev and got negative responses back. Was hoping, in the interim, things might've changed on the accessibility front - alas, that's a big fat no! Here's the response I received from the main dev, a fellow named Ben:
Hi,
No, the situation hasn't changed. We aren't some large multinational company writing software. Its basically me and another dev that work on things. Our goal is to add features and try and create revenue and that is all focused on what large businesses need for features. One web developer works on all UI components, and is behind in his schedule by at least a year. Keeping up ons tuff is very difficult.
To make CrushFTP more voiceover friendly, it would be sacrificing my company to do that. That would mean we fail as a company as we pursue changes and features that do not provide revenue... So unfortunately, you can use what we have if it functions...but we have no one or time to dedicate to making Voice Over a priority as doing so would drastically slow down our competitiveness and risk the overall company's agility in doing so.
Just so you understand...we are talking about costing us many many thousands of dollars in development time, testing, etc. There is no justifiable market in this for us...we don't have the experience or the money to spend on this. While your $100 would be great, it wouldn't even touch the cost associated with making things the way you needed.
So that is the situation, and I'm sorry it isn't what you wanted to hear.
Thanks,
Ben
I don't, at all, begrudge this fellow's desire to make money, after all that's what the Capitalist system is all about. I can even understand his UI dev being behind schedule by almost a year, what with COVID, etc. I can even accept that he and his partner lack the experience necessary to affect meaningful accessibility in the web-interface - all valid points.
I can't, however, accept that bringing increased screen reader accessibility to the product would cost thousands of dollars in time and testing, or that doing so would sacrifice the company. Admittedly there aren't a giant number of blind folks who are gonna put in CrushFTP and use it, still, at least to my way of thinking, $100 per unlimited license is $100 that this company would have that they might not otherwise have.
I'm one whose conservative in many ways, and I'm not keen on gaining improved accessibility at the muzzle of the legal "gun" (i.e. lawsuits). I'm wondering, though, given we're well into the 21st century, if maybe it's time to get the NFB, ACB, etc involved? Mind you, I'm not interested in driving this company out of business, I simply wish to see improved accessibility of their product for both Windows and Mac users alike.
Any thoughts, suggestions, etc?
Now, onto my second issue. I recently acquired CrushFTP 10 and wanted to give it a spin just to see if maybe accessibility had improved? After all, Apple does make changes to WebKit and that could change how VO sees the UI, plus I was thinking of maybe playing around with VoiceOver Activities and seeing if, perhaps, I could make the web-interface a little easier to use. Here's what I told the dev about my installation issues, which, by the way, he never once addressed - guess he was too focused on what he can't, or simply refuses to do:
I followed the initial installation procedure:
Cd /Applications/CrushFTP10/
Chmod +x CrushFTP.command
./CrushFTP.command
I then entered my OS password, as required, and things came up running.
I next created an initial admin user and password. This seems to work out OK, far as I can tell.
Next I click on the “Authenticate for macOS” button. I’m able to enter my OS password OK, but I see that the Java window is no longer there, and in Activity Monitor, the CrushFTP Jar Proxy is no longer running. I can only assume from this, that the server has, effectively, crashed?
Next, in Terminal, I again enter ./CrushFTP.command and things come back up running. I go to my browser and enter the URL, http://192.168.1.100:9090/ and hit enter. The login page comes up. I enter my username and password and click the “Login Now” button. Safari asks if I wish to save the password for this site and I tell it “Not Now”. Immediately I get a message telling me that Safari can’t load the page http://192.168.1.100:9090/ because the server suddenly dropped the connection. It further states that this sometimes occurs because the server is busy and I should wait a few minutes and try again. This is all the further I get.
I’m attempting to use this on a Late 2014 Mac mini, running macOS 12.2.1. The Terminal shell I’m using is ZSH instead of BASH, as Monterey’s Terminal app tells me that you need to switch to ZSH, as that’s now the default shell. Not sure if using ZSH instead of BASH would cause any problems with initial setup of CrushFTP? I’m also running a very simple FTP server on the same machine, called “FTP Server”, which I got from the Mac App Store. I don’t think that should affect logging into the CrushFTP web interface, for the first time, as that server is using port 21, and the CrushFTP web interface uses port 9090, or port 8080, depending on what one wishes to use? By the way, I also opened port 9090 on my router, just to make sure things we’re getting through.
One thing I have noticed, for about the last 2 to 3 weeks, is that I’m having issues with pings to my server machine being slow, or timing out. On my 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, (the machine I’m writing this message on), I have a little monitoring app, called “Ping”. Most times it shows status as being up, but sometimes it shows slow or timed out. I’m attributing this to either an issue with macOS Monterey, or the war in Eastern Europe and the likely increase in cyber attacks, as a result. Along with this, I’m also using the app, “Pulseway” to monitor my server, and at times it informs me that my server is “off-line”. It does advise that the issue could simply be a loss of Internet connectivity, but the machine is still up and running, which it actually is. I’ve had issues with Pulseway doing this, over the last couple years, so I’m thinking that might be an issue with the OS and Pulseway’s link to its main server - this issue has been less a problem since installing Monterey, so I think that has less to do with any outside forces. Generally, though, my Web, Mail, FTP and TeamTalk servers all seem to function normally - no strange glitches, slowdowns, etc.
I'm wondering if anyone out there in the community might have insights into what's going on? My Internet connection is Fiber-to-Home, with 30 megabits down and 10 megabits up, my router is the NetGear R6200v2, and, as mentioned above, the server machine is a Late 2014 Mac mini running the most recent public release of Monterey. The Java which is running, when CrushFTP is launched, is the version which came with the package I downloaded from CrushFTP's site.
Best Regards,
Ron
P.S.
If anyone, particularly software devs, accomplished web designers, etc, from the appleVis community would like to write to the CrushFTP folks about screen reader accessibility, how to improve it, etc, please write to: support@crushftp.com. As always, please be kind, courteous, respectful and thoughtful when writing to them. You may all get the exact same type of response I did, but maybe if they see that there are people out there, besides myself, who'd be interested in accessibility improvements to CrushFTP's web-interface, it might provide them with incentive to, at the very least, give it consideration. Again, thanks!