Q: How do you install CrushFTP as a service or daemon on Windows or OS X?

A: From the File menu, choose the menu item to install the daemon / service. For newer versions of Windows past WinXP, be sure to right click and run CrushFTP as an administrator in order to install the service.

A: Each Linux distro has its own way of handling startup items. Refer to your distro's documentation on how to add a reference to a script for starting CrushFTP. (crushftp_init.sh)

A: First, try removing the service and reinstalling. If that doesn't fix things, this is how you can reset everything.

Open the crush GUI. Go to manage servers. Remove all items in there, and click OK.

If you don't have any server items listening on "lookup" or listening on "127.0.0.1", then open your server prefs, add a new server item on port 8080, sharing users and groups from another server item.

Set its IP to be "127.0.0.1" instead of "lookup".

Click OK.

Now install the service again.

Q: Is it possible to run the server on ports below 1024 and not run as root on a Linux/Unix system?

A: Yes. Use the built in firewall to setup a port rewrite.

sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -d 192.168.0.5 -m tcp --dport 21  -j DNAT --to 192.168.0.5:2121

sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING  -p tcp -s 192.168.0.5 -m tcp --sport 2020 -j SNAT --to 192.168.0.5:20

If you do change the source port to 2020, add an entry into the prefs.xml specifying this. The entry goes in the individual server_item you want the source port changed on.

<source_port>60020</source_port>

Alternatively you may just want this:

sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 21 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 2121

Then just run CrushFTP on port 2121 instead.

Q: How do groups, inheritance and templates work in CrushFTP 5?

A: Groups and templating/inheritance cover two different types of things.

Groups just define lists of users. A better name would be "Lists" instead of "Groups" as that is all it does. So just keep that in mind.

Having a list of users is important when you want to do a batch update to everyone in that "List/Group". Instead of applying to all users, it only applies to that "List/Group".

Batch changes such as adding a user into the template inheritance list is done by holding the "control" key when clicking on the add button. It is also used when holding control and de-selecting a checkbox in the list of inheritance/templates, and lastly its used when holding control and clicking on the checkboxes to the left of any setting that overrides the inherited value. Every setting has a checkbox like this on the left.

So you make some "setting users" that have settings you want applied to your users. You then choose a user in a group, and control click the add button to add this "setting user" to the list of their inheritance.