It's been a long time in development, but Microsoft has released a beta version of a new FTP service that we have completely rewritten for Windows Server code name "Longhorn". This new FTP service contains many great new features, such as:

• Integration of Web sites and FTP sites, allowing you to optionally host Web content and Web authoring on the same site by adding FTP settings.
• Adoption of the IIS 7.0 administration and configuration files, allowing .NET-style configuration of your FTP sites and using the new IIS 7.0 administration tool to manage your FTP settings.
• Data security through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and FTPS
• Support for additional Internet FTP standards such as UTF8 and IPv6.
• Hosting multiple FTP sites on the same IP address through the use of FTP virtual host names.
• Enhanced user isolation that allows you to create complex heirarchies of virtual directories to lock users into specific content locations.
• Improved supportability through improved W3C logging, detailed local error messages, and ETW tracing.

There are way too many features to list in such a short space, so a good place for addtional information is the "What’s New for Microsoft and FTP?" article. I encourage you to download the beta version of the new FTP service today, and listed below are the links for the download pages for each of the individual installation packages:

• FTP 7 (x86) Installation Package
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=87847
• FTP 7 (amd64) Installation Package
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89114

After installing the new FTP server, the following walkthroughs on the www.iis.net web site should help get you started:

• Add FTP publishing to an existing Web site
• Creating a new FTP site
• Configure FTP over SSL
• Configure FTP user isolation
• Configure FTP virtual host names
• Administering the New FTP Service using the IIS 7 Configuration Files

In closing, the beta version of this new FTP service has a lot to offer, and we've put a lot of time and effort into making what we think is a great start for the future of FTP for IIS. About the only piece of bad news that I have for anyone is that this new FTP service will not work on Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6.0.

All in all, our team is excited to see people start testing with this beta version. And lest I forget, my special thanks go to:

• Jaro, Emily, Daniel – for building it
• Suditi, Cip, Jeong – for testing it
• Janani, Andrew, Reagan – for making it look pretty

Thanks everyone!