FTP Client Developer: " I want you to stop using FTP."

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July 15, 2008

FTP Client Developer: " I want you to stop using FTP."

Steven Frank works at Panic, which produces Transmit, a very nice ftp/sftp/WebDAV/Amazon S3 client I use daily. He wants people to stop using ftp and start using sftp:

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who didn’t even realize their host supported SFTP. If your hosting service supports SFTP, you usually don’t have to change anything except for switching your client protocol from FTP to SFTP. If it doesn’t work, you should ask your host if there’s anything else you have to do (such as use a different port number).

“If your host doesn’t support SFTP, you should find a different host. It’s not hard to support, and it’s ridiculous to force people into using insecure protocols in the year 2008. Ask them, for example, why they don’t support telnet. FTP is no better.

“FTP has served us well, but it’s time to move on. You wouldn’t use a 23 year old computer to do your work, so don’t use a protocol from the same vintage. Demand modern transfer protocols from your host.”

I recently dealt with a hosting provider that provided either ftp or an absurd bundled-up DAV “application” unless something else was specifically requested, at which point it was made clear that ssh/sftp access was granted by special one-time dispensation.

If we assume, as I tend to, that end users will find the easiest way to do something, then the provider was making a horrible mistake. The DAV file manager was irritating, took forever to launch, and was slow. ftp to that provider was pretty fast and worked from client software I had on hand and was familiar with.

Which one is more likely to be used on someone’s laptop from a free Wi-Fi access point in some coffee shop somewhere?

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