Tuesday, August 19, 2008


Cyberduck SFTP Setup

Changes to personal web sites occured February 18, 2008!

Recent changes to personal web services for campus users may require the use of a 3rd-party sFTP (secure file transfer protocol) application, such as Cyberduck for Macintosh OS X, in order to connect and transfer files from a local computer to the web server. Recent versions of Dreamweaver (2004, Studio 8 and CS3) and Contribute (3 and 4 aka CS3) support sFTP natively and do not require a 3rd-party sFTP application to move files between the local computer and web server.

  1. If you do not already have Cyberduck, you can obtain it from http://cyberduck.ch/
  2. Open Cyberduck, which should be installed in your Applications directory on the hard drive
    Cyberduck Icon
  3. The default Cyberduck window will appear. Select Cyberduck > Preferences from the menubar and click the Transfers icon. Select to these permissions: under the Uploads section - the default settings for this option should already be set to owner: read write execute, group: read, others: read for files and owner: read write execute, group: read execute, others: read execute for directories. Close the Preference window.
    Change upload permissions
  4. Click Open Connection to enter host, username and password information for the web server.
    Select Registered User and Enter Name
  5. Use the following settings, and replace Username and Password with your University username and password (the same used for AppalNET, email and Novell). Replace Server if you are connecting to another host.
    Connection Settings
  6. Upon your first connection to the server, or if you have previously denied the host key, you will be requested to accept a host key fingerprint from the server. Click Always to accept the certificate and you will not be prompted again.
    Unknown Host Key
  7. Upon successful connection, you will be in your home directory on the server. You may already have files in this directory as well as a public_html directory. The public_html directory is the location for your web pages and files.
    Public_html listings
  8. Double-click public_html to open this directory in preparation for uploading and files. If you already have a published web site, you will see the files inside the public_html directory.
    Public_html listings
  9. Cyberduck has drag-and-drop capabilities for uploading and downloading files and folders between the local computer and server. To upload a file from your local machine, position your Cyberduck and Finder windows such that you can see both. From the finder, click and drag the file to the Cyberduck window and release to upload the file. To manually download an individual file or folder, reverse this process.
    Drag and Drop
  10. To upload a file using a dialog, select File > Upload... from the menubar. Find and select the file on your local computer and click Upload.
    Upload
  11. To download files and folders using a dialog with the ability to select where the files are saved, highlight the file in the Cyberduck window, select File > Download To..., navigate to your desired download location, and click Download To.
    Download To
  12. To download and rename a file using a dialog, highlight the file in the Cyberduck window, select File > Download As... from the menubar, navigate to the desired location, set the file name and click Download.
    Select Mac Installers volume
  13. To create a new directory on the server, from the Action menu, select New Folder...
    New Folder
  14. Cyberduck supports Bookmarks to save your connection settings for future use. To create a bookmark based on your current settings, click the Bookmarks icon to open the Bookmarks tray and click the plus icon in the lower left of the tray. Change settings as appropriate for your needs.
    Select Mac Installers volume
  15. To use your bookmarks, make sure the Bookmarks tray is visible, then double-click the connection you wish to open.
    Bookmarks list