Talk:SSH File Transfer Protocol

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Performance Issues

We've implemented SFTP by replacing FTP.However some performance issues are experienced now.SFTP jobs are taking more time than the FTP.. Any suggestions !!

SFTP and resume

sftp and resume? -- 68.103.147.152 07:21, 2005 Jun 16

I've now mentioned this capability in the article. JTN 13:50, 2005 Jun 16 (UTC)

I don't understand...

What does SSH stand for exactly? Is it a protocol or a program? Is "SSH File Transfer Protocol" the same as SSH? or SFTP? SFTP is introduced into the article without any explanation.

So an SCP program uses the SCP protocol right? And SFTP uses SSH?

I'm confused! :(

SSH stands for "Secure shell". It is both protocol and program. SCP programs use SCP protocol (but some can use also SFTP protocol). SFTP programs use SFTP procol only. Both use SSH.

new RFC

I incremented the RFC filename from 09 to 12. From my limited RFC knowledge it appears the protocol version has not been incremented but that this new RFC delinates "New data types defined" only. The section that would explain the differences seems to be incomplete. Kubatonmax, a Protest Warrior 11:45, 2006 Jan 29 (PST)

Combine, Combine, Combine

This topic should be combined with FTP. FTPS article should also be combined with FTP article.12.110.196.19 18:38, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Disagree with (at least) the first. SFTP a different protocol to FTP. — Matt Crypto 18:43, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Same here. FTP and SFTP are completely different beasts. Do not combine them into one article. -- Ernstdehaan 08:17, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

SCP not deprecated

This article says SCP is deprecated. However, as far as I can see, SCP is not deprecated, just (intentionally) limited compared to SFTP. -- Ernstdehaan 09:24, 9 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree - I cannot find any mention of SCP being deprecated, except by certain vendors of commercial SFTP software. Is there some standards committee somewhere that says SCP is deprecated?

SFTP is not FTP over SSH

I think this comment should be re-considered and worded a bit clearer:

A common misconception is that SFTP is simply FTP run over SSH; in fact it is a new protocol designed from the ground up by the IETF SECSH working group. It is sometimes confused with Simple File Transfer Protocol.

Is it really a "common" misconception that people think that SFTP is technically FTP via an SSH tunnel? It sounds like more of an assumption on the part of the writer to me.

I think that this statement just brings up cause for arguing semantics (like it already has). The way people are "commonly" reading it is: SFTP is not FTP over SSH.

Technically, it is a File Transfer Protocal implementation via SSH.

198.186.144.216 (talk) 18:04, 28 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uninformative

I've just read this entire article, and still have no idea what it is talking about. — Chameleon 10:34, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

References

Struggling to find any suitable references for this one. Anyone got any suggestions? Wordwizz (talk) 13:06, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

SCP – what is the article trying to say here?

Quoting the article:

Compared to the earlier SCP protocol, which allows only file transfers, the SFTP protocol allows for a range of operations on remote files – it is more like a remote file system protocol. An SFTP client's extra capabilities compared to an SCP client include resuming interrupted transfers, directory listings, and remote file removal. For these reasons it is relatively simple to implement a GUI SFTP client compared with a GUI SCP client.

Surely it's no more or no less a remote file system than FTP is? A file system works with any program which works with files, and neither of them do, unless you install and configure weird pseudo-file systems.
How can this make it simpler to implement a GUI SFTP client? Sure, if you define a "GUI client" as "a file manager like Norton Commander or Windows Explorer", it will be a bitch to implement it without a way to get a directory listing ... is that what the article is trying to say?
I get the feeling that someone is just mad at "the earlier" SCP because it's not SFTP, and tries to knock it. If so, better not mention it at all.

JöG (talk) 19:32, 3 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cryptography and Version History

There is no discussion of the cryptographic algorithms used. What makes this secure? Also, no direct comparison of versions are made. How about a table showing version features or maybe a Version History section? Stephen Charles Thompson (talk) 23:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

SFTP as a protocol is not secure. The fact that it is most commonly used on the SSH protocol (as the name implies) is what makes it secure. I don't know that this would be worth a new section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.184.142.176 (talk) 14:30, 10 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

File transfer speed, SCP vs SFTP

That's only true for naive implementations of the SFTP protocol not using pipelining on the client side. In practice, most SFTP implementations (i.e. OpenSSH sftp) offer the same performance as SCP. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sfandino (talk • contribs) 11:50, 24 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No mention of key based authentication and encryption?

The word 'key' doesn't appear anywhere. There needs to be coverage of public key based authentication and encryption (bidirectional) specifically as it applies to SFTP. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vanyo (talk • contribs) 19:08, 4 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]