Anyone know a good FTP service I can subscribe to?

MovingIn07 · 28-07-2011, 02:15 PM

Need to get something sent over from a Government office in Manila ... in Australia they were happy to use Dropbox but I fear Manila will not be so flexible .....

HongKongFoot · 28-07-2011, 02:23 PM

FTP is not encrypted FYI, the information is sent clear text, anyone with a sniffer on the same circuit of point/origin can grab your data.

Are you trying to send or retrieve data?

MovingIn07 · 28-07-2011, 02:32 PM

Retrieve data. It's not particularly confidential (just stuff we have to pay for) - large volume of data on an electricity market.

MovingIn07 · 28-07-2011, 02:36 PM

This is what they asked for:

May we also verify if you have an existing secured FTP service where we can upload all the requested data for your convenience.

I don't really know what it means. With my Aussie contacts, I just share a dropbox folder and they copy the files into it !

shri · 28-07-2011, 02:46 PM

Tell them dropbox is a super secure FTP service with a web based interface.

MovingIn07 · 28-07-2011, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by shri:

Tell them dropbox is a super secure FTP service with a web based interface.

You could be onto something .......

mur.su · 28-07-2011, 02:58 PM

FTP is transparent, simple, and efficient. On most platforms it can be used from the client side without installing any additional programs (i.e. command line). These do not apply to Dropbox, is why many people are reluctant to use it. SFTP (secure FTP) is encrypted like SSH, should be no problems in that regard.

I don't think it's possible to subscribe to FTP service specifically, but you can rent a (virtual) server, and have your SFTP server there. This might make sense if you have a recurring need for transferring large files. You can create individual usernames for all parties needing access.

FTP & SFTP servers come by default with most if not all Linux distributions, e.g. Ubuntu, so most likely only things that need to be done are to create the desired usernames and open up the port 22 in the firewall. Both should be possible from a virtual server web control panel.

It would be also fairly straightforward to install Ubuntu on an old PC with a new big hard disk and plug it into the office network, remembering to open up / redirect port 22 from the router/firewall.

HTH

100LL · 28-07-2011, 03:10 PM

Secure FTP or SSH FTP. It's essentially a SSH account used for file transfer. But it could also be that they simply meant an FTP server behind a locked door which the public cannot access.

If you have a NAS attached to the Internet, the admin can probably create an SFTP (SSH) account.

If you have a dedicated web server, your admin should create a limited SSH account via control panel or shell. You can then ask your admin to transfer the files to your office or use a client such as SecureFX which is just like an FTP client but secure. The trial version should be good enough for this. If you only have a shared web server (the stuff you get for a few dollars a month), maybe it's still possible via control panel, but this depends on what you have and how much space is required.

If you have in house Windows server with a windows domain with your user accounts, then you could setup VShell. But you need your admin to do that.

If you are not tech savvy and you don't have an admin, I'd try convince them that Drop Box is all you have. Or just ask them to use THEIR sftp server, and then you use the trial version of SecureFX (or any other client) to get the files.

Or ask them to burn the data on a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and send via courier ;-)

MovingIn07 · 28-07-2011, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by mur.su:

FTP is transparent, simple, and efficient. On most platforms it can be used from the client side without installing any additional programs (i.e. command line). These do not apply to Dropbox, is why many people are reluctant to use it. SFTP (secure FTP) is encrypted like SSH, should be no problems in that regard.

I don't think it's possible to subscribe to FTP service specifically, but you can rent a (virtual) server, and have your SFTP server there. This might make sense if you have a recurring need for transferring large files. You can create individual usernames for all parties needing access.

FTP & SFTP servers come by default with most if not all Linux distributions, e.g. Ubuntu, so most likely only things that need to be done are to create the desired usernames and open up the port 22 in the firewall. Both should be possible from a virtual server web control panel.

It would be also fairly straightforward to install Ubuntu on an old PC with a new big hard disk and plug it into the office network, remembering to open up / redirect port 22 from the router/firewall.

HTH

Unfortunately I only understood the simple words in your post! I'm not technically minded. Are you saying that if we have our own server we can create our own FTP thingy? Is that was FileZila does?

I think we still have some servers .....although we no longer actually use them!

MovingIn07 · 28-07-2011, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by 100LL:

If you are not tech savvy and you don't have an admin, I'd try convince them that Drop Box is all you have.

That would appear to be us.

Originally Posted by 100LL:

Or ask them to burn the data on a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and send via courier ;-)

This is what we did in the past, and now they want to charge us heaps for it (plus it takes ages from Manila)

Hmm. I think we have windows servers (they came with the company) but I have no IT staff anymore to figure out what to do with them!!!! But this helps. Might get one of my smarter staff to see if they can figure out what to do.