Secure FTP Software with Sync Ability

[Brian Hoey]

Hi. I am interested in finding an ftp (or multi-purpose file
backup/sync) program (freeware) that supports Secure FTP (e.g., SyncBack
looks good but does not support SFTP -- see http://www.syncback.com).
My University is discontinuing any insecure connections to its servers.
No more plain text passwords of any kind. This means telnet and all
simple FTP connections will be blocked. They have long distributed
Secure Shell SSH and SFTP but the FTP program does not have a sync capacity.

As they're not allowing simple FTP connections, I can no longer use
Frontpage for my website publishing (it doesn't support SFTP and they do
not support FP server extensions). I want to continue using Frontpage,
so I need to "publish" to my PC and then upload the files via a Secure
FTP connection. I can do that with Secure Shell, but it doesn't sync.
What I want to AVOID is having to upload EVERY file each time I publish
to update those files that I've changed. Frontpage does this as a
matter of course by keeping track of the files that have changed and
only uploading/publishing them to the server but I've yet to find a
Secure (or even insecure) FTP program (dedicated or otherwise) that will
upload only the CHANGED files when comparing my website directory (as
published locally on my computer) and the remote website (on the
University's server).

Any thoughts are helpful. If I'm not seeing a simple way out of this
(aside from purchasing a new web designer/publisher such as the current
Dreamweaver with built-in sftp), let me know (gently). TIA

BTW, I've dabbled with setting up a TUNNEL using SSH. I can't configure
Frontpage to publish "through" the tunnel (can't be done according to
Microsoft), but maybe I can setup an *insecure* ftp program to use the
SSH tunnel. Any ideas?

Best,

Werdhi

 

[rach]

Hi. I am interested in finding an ftp (or multi-purpose file
backup/sync) program (freeware) that supports Secure FTP [snip]

http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/ is the closest match I know of. It doesn't
synch directories, but when uploading you can set it to only upload newer
files if you like.

I've tunneled many things over SSH, but not ftp. I believe you must have the
server configured to do that because ftp uses many ports randomly otherwise.

Rach

 

[GlintingHedgehog]

As they're not allowing simple FTP connections, I can no longer use
Frontpage for my website publishing (it doesn't support SFTP and they do
not support FP server extensions). I want to continue using Frontpage,
so I need to "publish" to my PC and then upload the files via a Secure
FTP connection. I can do that with Secure Shell, but it doesn't sync.
What I want to AVOID is having to upload EVERY file each time I publish
to update those files that I've changed. Frontpage does this as a
matter of course by keeping track of the files that have changed and
only uploading/publishing them to the server but I've yet to find a
Secure (or even insecure) FTP program (dedicated or otherwise) that will
upload only the CHANGED files when comparing my website directory (as
published locally on my computer) and the remote website (on the
University's server).

I'm not entirely sure it does what you want, but I *think* CoreFTP might do
what you're looking for. I use it, & think it's great, but I don't use it
exhaustively enough to know if it will fulfil your needs. I know it does
SFTP, & I'm pretty sure it allows you to set it to upload new files & only
overwrite older files...so no promises, but it might be worth a look.