		Next

Secured Ftp

Table of Contents

FTP/TLS: All the goodies

FTP/TLS is a big part of my job. It's an exciting time for the protocol because after years sitting around as a commonly used draft standard, it's just been promoted to a standards track RFC.

Pretty much all you could need to know about FTP/TLS (TLS being the current Right Way to refer to SSL) is at the RFC author's "FTP/TLS State of Play" page. http://www.ford-hutchinson.com/~fh-1-pfh/ftps-ext.html

It covers things like the difference between SFTP (SSH) and FTPS (SSL) (although instead of discussing the merits of either, it links to another page) … and has a long (but not comprehensive) list of clients.

However, the OP asks about implicit SSL. The IETF frowns on implicit SSL, and the FTP/TLS standard negotiates TLS implicitly (with "AUTH TLS").

Some of the listed clients may support implicit SSL however. I suspect WS-FTP does, for example.

by slim

What about SSH certs and Rsync

I have to transfer files and directories across several locations, and I do it automatically using rsync and SSH certificates.

SSH is configured to only allow transfers with a valid certificate from a valid IP address. There is no pass-phrase on the certs.

Copying / syncing directories is a breeze:

rsync -ae ssh server1:/copy/this/directory/ /to/this/directory

No fuss. I have not tried rsync on win32, but I am sure it exists. I do a lot of web development, but have not used a ftp client on a regular basis in years. My sites are backed up to remote servers using this method, and new sites are uploaded using rsync as well.

Its fast, easy to use and saves on bandwidth, as only changes are transfered. With FTP the whole file is always moved. SO bandwidth savings alone may be worth looking into this solution.

by madstork2000

documented on: 2006.06.14