Creating Listeners

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.

How to get here

This page is used to create a new listener on the server.

• Listener type. Select the type of listener you are configuring.
  • FTP. Select this option to accept connections using the FTP protocol.  FTP listeners are used for FTP and SSL connections.

    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.

  • SSH/SFTP. Select this option to accept connections using the SFTP protocol over an SSH tunnel.

    Note: Listener type is only available in Ipswitch WS_FTP Server with SSH. If you only have Ipswitch WS_FTP Server installed, this option does not appear.

• IP address. Enter the IP address on which you want the server to accept connections.
• All IP addresses. Select to enable this listener to accept connections on the specified port for all IP addresses configured on the server.

  Note: If you have a listener accepting connections on all IP addresses, you cannot create other listeners using that same port.

• Port (21 by default for FTP listeners; 22 by default for SSH/SFTP listeners, if available). Enter the port on which you want the server to accept connections.
• Network timeout (600 by default). Enter the number of seconds after which the client is disconnected if the server has not received a command or any data from the client.
• Data channel timeout (60 by default). Enter the number of seconds after which the client is disconnected that the server will abandon the transfer of an uploaded file and release the lock from any partially uploaded file.
• Maximum connections (1000 by default). Enter the total number of connections you want this listener to accept. This number limits connections to the server through this listener for all hosts associated with this listener. All connections beyond the limit are immediately terminated.
• Banner message. Enter the message you want the server to send to a user upon successful connection, before the user logs on. You can use this message to tell users about the organization of your host, any rules, times of operation, mirror sites, or contact information. You can use message variables to provide information to the user (for example, that the host has reached the maximum number of concurrent users).

  Disable default banner. Select this option to prevent the server from sending the default banner message, which identifies the server as Ipswitch WS_FTP Server.

  Note: In addition to the Banner message, you can set Welcome and Exit messages that are displayed when a client authenticates and disconnects, respectively. Welcome and Exit messages only apply to FTP listeners.

• Enable Secure Copy (SCP2). Select this option to allow an SCP client to connect to the SSH server. This setting applies only to SSH listeners. For more information, see Using SCP.

Hosts Associated with this Listener

This list displays the hosts that use this listener.  From this list, you can perform the following actions:

• Associate a host with this listener. Select Add to associate an existing host with this listener.
• Remove a host from this listener.  Select a host, then select Remove to break the association between the host and this listener.  After removing a host, you can no longer negotiate connections to the host on this listener.
• Define a default host for this listener. Select a host from the list and then click Set Default to define that host as the default host on this listener.  Any users who authenticate without providing a host are assumed to be accessing this host.  If the list of hosts is empty, you must click Add and select a host to add to the list before you can select a default host.

Note: SSL and SSH options cannot be configured while creating a listener.  To configure SSH or SSL, you must edit the listener after it is saved.