1. cPanel & WHM Documentation
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  3. Service Configuration
  4. FTP Server Selection
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FTP Server Selection

Valid for versions 102 through the latest version

Version:

102

Last modified: November 30, 2022

Overview

This interface allows you to select an FTP server daemon, or to disable FTP services.

Note:
When you upgrade a server for which the FTP target is set to unmanaged, problems may occur in the cPanel user interface. For more information, read our How to Restore Missing FTP Interfaces in cPanel documentation.
Important:
  • This interface is unavailable when you disable the FTP server role. Certain server profiles disable this role in WHM’s Server Profile (WHM » Home » Server Configuration » Server Profile). For more information, read our How to Use Server Profiles documentation.
  • We disable FTP services by default because the FTP protocol sends clear-text usernames and passwords over public networks. It also does not enforce encryption, so third parties can attack the transmitted data. We recommend that you use transfer methods that use encryption, such as the scp command or cPanel’s File Manager interface (cPanel » Home » Files » File Manager).

How to select an FTP daemon

To select an FTP daemon for your server, perform the following steps:

  1. In the FTP Server column, select ProFTPD or Pure-FTPD.
    • Select Disabled to disable FTP services.
  2. Click Save.

Pure-FTPd and ProFTPD

Note:

We support Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol version 1.2.

  • We strongly recommend that you enable TLSv1.2 on your server.
  • You can use TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2 to manage your Pure-FTPd server.
Important:

ProFTPD does not use TCP-Wrappers-based access controls on the following systems:

  • AlmaLinux OS 8
  • Rocky Linux™ 8
  • CloudLinux™ 8

Use the functionality available in WHM’s Host Access Control interface for these operating systems.

The rest of ProFTPD’s functionality still works on these operating systems.

The following list offers comparisons between these FTP server daemons:

  • Pure-FTPd typically provides faster FTP transfers than ProFTPD.
  • Pure-FTPd does not display statistics in the statistics menu.
  • Pure-FTPd supports virtual user quotas; ProFTPD does not.
  • ProFTPD will display your bandwidth usage, allowing you to monitor the amount of bandwidth that FTP sessions use.

For more information, visit the ProFTPD and Pure-FTPd websites.

Additional Documentation