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Clarifying secure FTP vs. non-secure FTP settings
Authored by: victory on May 30, '06 08:50:57PM
Yeah, there's very little reason to be using traditional FTP for file transfers across public networks nowadays. Besides the aforementioned lack of any real security, the dual-port nature of the protocol has always been problematic for firewall/ NAT setups as well. Probably the only valid use for the protocol any more is for public sharing (anon-FTP) of files, which, in all likelihood are better served via HTTP anyway.

Here's a few helpful links for sftp/scp client apps that others may find useful:

MacOSX GUI-based SFTP clients: Try Cyberduck (donationware), Fugu (freeware) and Transmit (commercial). No doubt there are others. Check VersionTracker, etc.

Windows-based SSH/SFTP apps: The Cygwin package(freeware) mentioned earlier, contains (among other things) a full port of an OpenSSH, both client and server. However, if you're looking for client-only apps be sure to take a look at Simon Tatham's set of freeware SSH tools: There's putty.exe*, a Windows- based SSH client as well as psftp.exe and pscp.exe, console-based versions of sftp and scp. The great thing is that these are all statically-linked binaries, meaning that each of these apps is a single 'self-contained' .exe file (i.e. no need to use an installer app on the host system) which makes them perfect for doing emergency maintenance with just about any PC with Internet access.

For Windows-based GUI SFTP clients, take a look at WinSCP (freeware) and the excellent SecureFX (commercial)

All these apps work well with OSX's OpenSSH-based SFTP server.

* Putty is really a great little Windows app. Besides using it to simply do remote terminal logins on an OSX system, you can even use it to create SSH tunnels and forward things like VNC connections from a PC to your Mac.

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Clarifying secure FTP vs. non-secure FTP settings
Authored by: osxpounder on May 31, '06 01:32:18PM

Good tips; thanks! I second your recommendation of putty and its family of Windows apps. That's a good point about putty not needing an installer, and instead being self-contained.

I've used putty for a few years now to login to my Macs remotely. Nice and quick.

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osxpounder



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