[kman42]

I've never had much use for ftp before, but I just started in a new lab and they use ftp to transfer stuff off of a Win 98 PC. I do know that ftp is really insecure and that at some point (around 10.0 or 10.1) ftp was disabled or it only used secure ftp or something. Is the ftp server in the Sharing prefs of 10.3 a secure ftp? The PC also has an ssh ftp client. That would certainly be more secure, right? Do I just need to turn on Remote Login or also ftp?

thanks,
kman

[qyn]

The ftp server in the sharing pref is only for ftp, not sftp. As I recall, sftp runs via the sshd. So to get sftp running, you need to start remote login (aka sshd). But as I recall, I had problems connecting to my mac via sftp (not sure what exactly), so no guaranteed results on that.

In a lab environment, normal ftp should be fine. The main problem is that it transmits the password in plaintext, which anyone can then sniff. I doubt you'll have such a problem in a closed lab.

[kman42]

Originally posted by qyn:
The ftp server in the sharing pref is only for ftp, not sftp. As I recall, sftp runs via the sshd. So to get sftp running, you need to start remote login (aka sshd). But as I recall, I had problems connecting to my mac via sftp (not sure what exactly), so no guaranteed results on that.

In a lab environment, normal ftp should be fine. The main problem is that it transmits the password in plaintext, which anyone can then sniff. I doubt you'll have such a problem in a closed lab.

Maybe. But as on my academic institutions, the lab is wide open to the internet with lots of old computers and I doubt they are up to date security-wise (PCs running everything from OS/2 to Win95/98 to XP). Since I am transferring stuff to my computer, I don't really want to transfer my user pass in plaintext.

I'll see if I can get the sftp to work.

kman

[Johnny_B]

You also have FTPS. FTP with SSL...