About listeners

Listeners are a combination of an IP address and port number on which a server is configured to allow connections. You can configure as many listeners as you want, up to one per port on each available IP address.

There are two kinds of listeners: FTP and SSH. FTP listeners provide access to hosts using basic FTP and SSL (implicit and explicit). SSH listeners provide access to hosts using the SFTP protocol over SSH.

By default, WS_FTP Server creates three listeners:

• FTP (FTP and Explicit SSL). This listener accepts connections on all available IP addresses on the computer on port 21 for FTP connections.
• SSH. This listener accepts connections on all available IP addresses on the computer on port 22 for SSH connections.
• FTP (Implicit SSL). This listeners accepts connections on all available IP addresses on the computer on port 990, and it requires SSL encryption.

To configure a new listener:

1. From the top menu, select Server > Listeners. The Listeners page opens.
2. Click Create. The Create Listener page opens.

3. Select a Listener type. After the listener is created, you can edit it to modify settings specific to the type of listener selected.
4. Enter an IP address, or select All IPs to have this listener use all IP addresses configured on the server.
5. Select a Port. By default, FTP listeners use port 21 and SSH listeners use port 22. To configure an FTP listener for Implicit SSL, specify port 990.
6. Enter a Banner message, if desired. This message may contain message variables.

   Tip: To configure an SSL listener, select FTP as the Listener type. After saving the listener, you can configure specific SSL settings by editing the listener.

7. Modify the remaining settings as needed.
8. Select a host to serve as the default host for this listener, then select Set Default. If no hosts are listed in the Hosts Associated with this Listener list, select Add to associate a host.
9. Click Save. The Listeners page reopens with the new listener in the list.