I have a CentOS 5 server with VirtualMin Pro 3.59 and ProFTPd 1.3.0a-3el5. I’ve noticed in my netstat output that the proftpd daemon appears to have a lot of CLOSE_WAITs from random high-numbered ports on my server to 70.86.4.226:80.
According to whois the IP belongs to VirtualMin Inc. Can anyone shed some light on what’s going on here?
Also, is there some reason I need to use the VirtualMin version of ProFTPd, or can I use a more recent official build?
Alternatively, is vsftpd known to work well with VirtualMin?
Oddly, it seems like ProFTPd was getting "charged" for other actions VirtualMin was taking. It had /var/cache/yum/virtualmin/packages/virtualmin-base*.noarch.rpm open for reading and /root/virtualmin-install.log open for writing.
I restarted proftpd and it hasn’t done anything out of the ordinary since, so I guess it’s a false alarm. Although I’d still like to know whether it’s feasible to use the “official” ProFTPd or vsftpd.
that means they dont change version numbers too often but backport future security fixes to that version number
like php 5.1.6 still has the security patches found in newer releases.
Personally I stick with centos updates to keep the system default
I have no experience with vsftp myself so i wouldn’t know.
I have a CentOS 5 server with VirtualMin Pro 3.59 and ProFTPd 1.3.0a-3el5. I've noticed in my netstat output that the proftpd daemon appears to have a lot of CLOSE_WAITs from random high-numbered ports on my server to 70.86.4.226:80.
That’s not ProFTPd. What makes you think it is?
That’s yum checking for updates, and is normal and harmless.
There’s also a daily license update to see what your license is for (e.g. to know if it’s been upgraded for more domains, or renewed for another year). Also has nothing to do with ProFTPd.
Also, is there some reason I need to use the VirtualMin version of ProFTPd, or can I use a more recent official build?
What “official build” would you be referring to? CentOS does not provide ProFTPd. If it did, we certainly wouldn’t. Our policy is only to provide those packages that are not provided by the OS vendor. ProFTPd is not provided by RHEL/CentOS, so we provide it.
vsftpd works fine with the optional vsftpd module, though it doesn’t do quite as much as ProFTPd, and there is no Webmin module for vsftpd, so you have to set it up on the command line. If FTP isn’t a heavy part of your operation, then vsftpd will work fine. I actually like it better–but I consider FTP a “last resort” protocol and would pretty much never use it if I didn’t have to deal with less technical folks who refuse to use anything else.
