One way to give others access to your files is to run an FTP server on your Mac. Mac OS X Snow Leopard comes with an FTP server built in, so you just have to activate it. You might wonder why you’d use FTP to share files when you can use Personal File Sharing or Windows File Sharing. The main advantage to FTP is compatibility: Not only can people on your LAN access files, but anyone on the Internet can also access your files, regardless of the type of machine they’re using.
Just as you do with the other file-sharing methods, you need to create a user account on your computer before someone can connect to and get files from your Mac. After you have accounts created for the users, you can enable FTP sharing like this:
1Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock.
Apple seemingly dropped the FTP Server support in Mac OX Lion. Only the GUI. You can still enable it with the command line. To start it type. FTP sharing for all standard accounts is active regardless of what access is defined in Sharing as long as the FTP checkbox is checked in 'Options.' Try creating a standard user account. Their home directory will the the one they will have access to, but keep in mind that this will allow them to browse the same parts of your filesystem that they could if they did a GUI login locally.
The System Preferences dialog opens.
2Click the Sharing icon.
The Sharing Preferences pane opens.
3Click the File Sharing entry and click the Options button.
Your file sharing options display.
4Click the Share Files and Folders Using FTP check box to enable it.
Snow Leopard reminds you on the Advanced sheet that people can use ftp://<ip address>, where ip address is the IP address of your Mac.
5Click Done.
The Advanced dialog, and System Preferences window close and your changes are saved.
![Mac Enable Ftp Mac Enable Ftp](http://www.semfionetworks.com/uploads/2/9/8/3/29831147/3498087_orig.png)
If you’re using an AirPort/AirPort Extreme Base Station or other cable/digital subscriber line (DSL) router to share your Internet connection, place the Mac that you want people on the Internet to access in a DMZ, or demilitarized zone. Check your cable/DSL router documentation for more information.
Apple’s recently announced the new iPads and MacBooks. With the announcement is an updated version of Apple OS X — version 10.9 aka Mavericks. As a surprise, Apple is providing the new version of OS X for free.
After upgrading to OS X Mavericks and needing to put up an FTP server on my Mac, I went to run the System Preferences app to enable the FTP Server. To my surprise, the option isn’t available already.
Fortunately, as with other server software on the OS X, I can actually enable the FTP server using the launchctl program on the Mac.
The launchctl software interfaces with launchd (a software that runs on the background to manage daemons/agents on the Mac) daemon on OS X.
Launchctl allows Mac users to load, unload daemons/agents and generally control launchd. To load the FTP server, just run the Terminal app and run the command:
sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist
And just like that FTP is now enabled.
You can unload the FTP server by also using the launchctl command. To unload the FTP server, just perform the following command in the Terminal app:
sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist
For WordPress developers, the FTP server is a convenient software when upgrading WordPress and plugins running on the Mac.
[Update: 19-Nov-2013]
Accessing the FTP server
After setting up the FTP server, you can access to it using the web browser. You can also use an ftp client like Forklift for the OS X or Filezilla (runs on both Windows and OS X).
Using your Mac’s OS X username and password, you can gain access via localhost (for ftp access from the same computer). To access the ftp server from another computer over your network, use your computer’s IP address.
For example, to access the FTP server using a browser, just use the following URL format:
ftp://user@localhost (you will then be prompted by the password)