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I need to provide an url to a third party company so that they can log in and download the file. The problem is that I don't know the url for my ftp/sftp site due to my very limited knowledge in ftp. I only know the way to connect to the ftp/sftp site using FireZilla. I connect to the ftp/sftp site using "Site Manager" in FireZilla, I provided the host name using an external IP address, and passed in an username and a password. The url that is showing up on the header of the FileZilla window displays: ftps://username@1029.56.34.19

Question #1: am I using sftp or ftp? Question #2: 1029.56.34.19 points to the home directory of my ftp website, and the file I need to upload is in a subfolder in the home directory, what should be the full url to the file on my ftp/sftp site? Is it something like this? sftp://1029.56.34.19/FolderName/FileName.csv

p.s. 1029.56.34.19 is not a real ip address, I am using it for demo purpose.

Superman Coding
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3 Answers3

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Based on this:

ftps://username@1029.56.34.19

you are using FTPS. There is FTP, SFTP, and FTPS. Furthermore, there are two types of FTPS - implicit and explicit.

FTPS is FTP over SSL (like HTTPS). SFTP is really a form of SSH (behind the scenes an SFTP client is logging in via SSH and issuing commands).

The easiest thing for you to recommend your third party to do is to install Filezilla and then give them the URL. Alternatively you can look into FileZilla's import/export functions which may be easier for both you and the client. WinSCP will also work.

Windows does not have native FTPS or SFTP support. Just the weird way it integrates with Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and the old ftp command.

LawrenceC
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In the sitemanager in FileZilla you can see whether FTP or SFTP is used. You can provide them with the IP address and folder in URL-form like you've shown, but please be aware that if you provide them with the username and password they will be able to access and alter the complete directory, unless you have a ftp account with only access to the specified directory.

Valk6
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You can tell if you are using encryption (FTPS or SFTP) from within your site manager. If, under protocol, it is set to SFTP, well you are using SFTP. If it is set to FTP and under encryption, you have an option that is not "use plain FTP" then you have FTPS.

The important consideration in getting this to work is that the IP address you give the third party needs to be your Internet IP address. If the IP address that you use is just on your local network, then you would need to set up port forwarding on any routers that the FTP server might be behind.

How do you tell? Either ask the person who set up and maintains the FTP server or look at the IP address of you computer and compare. If the IP addresses are similar (both start with 192.168.1.XXX or maybe 10.10.1.XXX) then you need to set up port forwarding.

If you know for sure, that the FTP server is accessible from the internet, then why don't you create a bookmark in Site Manager with the username and password for the third party, test the connection then right click on the site and select export. It will create a XML file with all the settings. The third party can import the file into FileZilla and connect.

They'll need a program like FileZilla if the FTP server is using encryption as most explorers only support plain FTP.

SLaG
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