Linux – How to connect to SFTP server with web browser

ftplinuxsftpsshUbuntu

I just created an SFTP file server using tutorial https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-enable-sftp-without-shell-access-on-ubuntu-16-04

Now I want to share the files to the third party so that they can download them using the username and password. The problem is that I don't know the URL for my FTP/SFTP site because I am very new to FTP.

I can see the URL on the FileZilla as sftp://dilipyadav@myhost.com. When I hit this URL on the browser, this doesn't open the FTP file directory.

What should be the URL that will point to my FTP file directory?

Best Answer

SFTP and FTP are two completely different and incompatible protocols. Do not mix those two.

No major web browser support SFTP (at least not without any addin).

The "third party" need to use a proper SFTP client.

Some SFTP clients can register to handle sftp:// URLs. You will then be able to paste SFTP file URL to a web browser and the browser will open the SFTP client to download the file.

For example WinSCP does register for handling of sftp:// URLs. (I'm the author of WinSCP)

FileZilla does not.

Related Solutions

Linux – How to setup the openSSH SFTP server on Linux

You need make sure /home/ftp is owned by root and that group and others don't have write permissions, e.g. chmod 0755. You need to add sub-directories for ftp to add files in.

You also need the internal-sftp subsystem, otherwise you need to provide a proper chroot environment in /home/ftp:

Subsystem sftp internal-sftp

To disallow all non-password kinds of login, enter

ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
GSSAPIAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication no

These are activated by default.

How to connect to a ftp/sftp site

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.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – How to setup the openSSH SFTP server on Linux

How to connect to a ftp/sftp site

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