Pre-Flight Check
- These instructions are intended specifically for installing the ProFTPD on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
- I’ll be working from a Liquid Web Core Managed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server, and I’ll be logged in as root.
Step 1: Install ProFTPD
Warning: FTP data is insecure; traffic is not encrypted, and all transmissions are clear text (including usernames, passwords, commands, and data). Consider securing your FTP connection with SSL/TLS.
First, you’ll follow a simple best practice: ensuring the list of available packages is up to date before installing anything new.
apt-get update
Then let’s install ProFTPD and any required packages:
apt-get -y install proftpd
During the install process you’ll be prompted with the following screen:

Step 2: Configure ProFTPD
For a refresher on editing files with vim see: New User Tutorial: Overview of the Vim Text Editor
Let’s edit the configuration file for ProFTPD:
vim /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
Change the ServerName to the hostname of your server. In the case below, ftp.thebestfakedomainnameintheworld.com is an example:
ServerName “ftp.thebestfakedomainnameintheworld.com”
To limit users to their home directory uncomment the line that says DefaultRoot:
# Use this to jail all users in their homes
DefaultRoot ~
Exit and save the file with the command :wq .
Restart the ProFTPD service:
service proftpd restart
Then set the ProFTPD service to start at boot:
update-rc.d proftpd defaults