SFTP SD2018 Failure

[Goz]

Because SFTP is FTP for SSH which is command line access to a server.

I was just explainging that SSH is command line access to a server.

[Mike Hughes]

Goz, that would make sense except that it came in response to the question

Is there a reason Sellerdeck aren't supporting SFTP.?

Where I have to say I don't see it as being a reason at all for not supporting it (do you and if so why? ) and the reference to it being for command line access to the server strikes me as being a bit of red herring as that's not the purpose of SFTP.

[Goz]

SellerDeck (as far as I'm aware... but I could be wrong) does not use SSH.... therefore it can't support SFTP. Using SSH would require public and private keys which would be different for each site and I can't see SellerDeck organising that quietly in the background.

FTPS, on the other hand, checks for the validity of the SSL certificate for the website. SellerDeck desktop does this and, if the SSL certificate is not trusted, it will automatically untick the Secure FTP box in network settings.

[Mike Hughes]

SellerDeck (as far as I'm aware... but I could be wrong) does not use SSH.... therefore it can't support SFTP. Using SSH would require public and private keys which would be different for each site and I can't see SellerDeck organising that quietly in the background.

FTPS, on the other hand, checks for the validity of the SSL certificate for the website. SellerDeck desktop does this and, if the SSL certificate is not trusted, it will automatically untick the Secure FTP box in network settings.

Both these points are quite interesting.

FileZilla works with SFTP on my 1and1 test site without any problems so I'm not sure I understand what they're doing that Sellerdeck can't? CPAN have a standard Net::SSH perl module which I assume would do the donkey work for this, just as Net::SMTP does for the email side of things.

Reading around this, it seems that the need for separate keys on the client side are not a requirement and SFTP can work quite happily using username/password for authentication instead. So Public and Private Keys are not a requirement for SFPT.

The second point about FTPS and SSL is interesting as it raises a couple of issues.
Presumably it's implying that a) You must have an SSL certificate on your domain to use FTPS (which I don't on my test site) or b) your ftp server is on your hosts domain in which case you'd be using their SSL certificate.

FTPS doesn't work using 1and1-data.host as the ftp server and I've also tried (using filezilla) on my live site that does have the SSL certificate without any luck.

So all in all, SFTP looks like a better option to me. (Not least because FTPS doesn't appear to work on 1and1 unix servers)

Mike

[Goz]

My head hurts

[Mike Hughes]

Sorry Goz, I find the details interesting so sometimes I do tend to ramble on a bit.

The bottom line as I see it?

1. Sellerdeck should really support SFTP as it's the protocol used by many hosts for securing FTP including 1and1 on their unix servers

2. AFAIK there's no technical reasons why they can't do it. Obviously it takes specifying, developing and testing effort to implement.

3. It is a bit of a mystery to me why they haven't implemented it. I can understand that maybe FTPS is a quick fix but from past experience I'd have said that Sellerdeck usually do a thorough job in specifying new features.

4. I'm not that concerned about uploading the website over a secure connection but AFAIK one of the security concerns is that plain FTP exposes the username and password which is more concerning to me.

Mike

[Sheltons]

Sorry Goz, I find the details interesting so sometimes I do tend to ramble on a bit.

The bottom line as I see it?

1. Sellerdeck should really support SFTP as it's the protocol used by many hosts for securing FTP including 1and1 on their unix servers

2. AFAIK there's no technical reasons why they can't do it. Obviously it takes specifying, developing and testing effort to implement.

3. It is a bit of a mystery to me why they haven't implemented it. I can understand that maybe FTPS is a quick fix but from past experience I'd have said that Sellerdeck usually do a thorough job in specifying new features.

4. I'm not that concerned about uploading the website over a secure connection but AFAIK one of the security concerns is that plain FTP exposes the username and password which is more concerning to me.

Mike

Hi Mike,
I use 1and1 and ran into upload problems when 1and1 change my FTP to SFTP. Was hoping SD 2018 would be the end of it, so i'm disappointed reading this Posting. However, I have been uploading to 1and1 via SFTP with our current site in SD V11 near on a year.

I implemented a workaround:
On my local SBS Server I have Bitvise installed (you can put it on your workstation also). SD V11 connects to BitVise via FTP and the BitVise app relays it to 1and1 via SFTP. I have even been able to give a developer that is upgrading us to 2016 access to it via Firewall rules so they can upload to a test site on our 1and1 - it's also Free.

I know it's not the answer, and I would like no better that to just upload to 1and1 via SFTP from SD 2018, but thought it relevant and of interest if anyone is completely stuck while this gets resolved.

John.

[saucysal]

Hello John. I had the same problem as you and posted about it on this forum. I found that changing the host name in SD website settings to the one that 1and1 give for sftp (starts with "home"), but not changing the port, keeping it at 21, and not ticking box for secure ftp, so just the one change, worked for most of my 1and1 sites. I still have one still working with the original settings (original host name, which was the domain name), and one works with the host name as an ip address).

Sarah