Re: Secure FTP basics

hi Rob,

sftp usually refers to the FTP-like user interface for SSH.

ftps:// or "FTP over SSL" or "FTP over TLS" refers to using the normal FTP protocol (with a handful of extensions) over an SSL socket. (TLS is the "new" name for SSL)

The standard port for SSH (and therefore sftp) is 22.
the standard port for FTP over SSL is 990 (though, it can also share port 21 with standard FTP)

it appears that your customer has only told you an IP address, userid, password and port -- and the port is not one of the standard ones. So, I'm not sure you have enough information to determine if it's sftp or ftp over SSL?

If I was forced to guess, I'd guess sftp, since it's far more commonly used, and the port number 10022 looks like someone might've taken 22 and added 10000 to get an "alternate port number". I haven't run into an sftp installation on port 10022 -- but it seems like the sort of thing a person might do.

But that's really just a WAG. The only way you'll know for sure is to ask.

You're right, there's nothing in the info Center about sftp -- presumably that's because it's not incldued with IBM i. I've written several articles you might find interesting, though:

From System iNetwork Programming Tips (free):

http://systeminetwork.com/article/ssh-scp-and-sftp-tools-openssh
http://systeminetwork.com/article/error-handling-sftp-scripts
http://systeminetwork.com/article/easy-way-put-variables-expect-script-sftp

From System iNEWS (requires paid membership):

http://systeminetwork.com/article/openssh-swiss-army-knife-secure-networking

IBM's web site:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/enable/site/porting/tools/openssh.html

Good luck


rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

I've done lots of ftp but really haven't done "secure ftp".
Not wanting to appear dumb to the customer I want to know if he means sftp or ftp via SSL or whatever.
We would be the client, they would be the server.
The information they gave me was:

Hello Rob, Thanks for taking a look at this. Here's the info - IP Addr = ...
User ID = ...
Psw = ...
Port = 10022
Didn't see anything enlightening in wiki.midrange.com or faq.midrange.com
Googling was a wasteland. Even selecting site:midrange.com didn't limit it to that site. Yahoo was much more respectful.

infocenter got zero hits on sftp. Seemed to be mainly geared towards SSL. (Which I am not even sure that is what I want.)

How do I get started?

Rob Berendt