No offense taken ;-)

I didn't have a problem with opening the FTP port, it was running the FTP server I was objecting to. Sorry for any confusion caused, maybe I should have been more precise.

Yes, FTP servers can be secure, but unless you're after some anonymous FTP system I don't see why you wouldn't use scp instead. Scp offers you PPK authorisation and file compression, I don't know any FTP servers that have those features. I'm not saying that none do, I'm really saying I haven't looked at running an FTP server for a looong time.

Anyway, _is_ a web port secure?
Hell, I don't know. I'm running Apache and hoping bugs get fixed before they're used.

Redarding Tripwire... there _is_ a free version available. As it happens I use AIDE instead (as that's what I could get running from the rpm once upon a time), which offers basically the same funtionality.