Hello
As being new to linux you should not be trying to chmod or chown this is a root function until understand enough. You can hose your box real fast.
First you can read the manpages on these services to help you understand
what you will be doing. manpage for iptables , ssh ,ftp
Configure your firewall to only allow the ip address's you want to have access to this box. for serverices like ssh, ftp. Then next you can configure the services like ssh to use a different port number in stead of the default 22. also change the ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes and PasswordAuthentication yes
This is done in /etc/ssh/sshd_conf also change the ftp conf file in the /etc directory to not allow anonymous access. buy doing these things you will greatly reduce the possibility of being hacked.
Good luck
