WinSCP 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 WinSCP for Windows, 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.
- If you do not already have WinSCP, you can obtain it from the Novell Application Explorer or download it from http://winscp.net/
- Open WinSCP, which should be installed in your Start > All Programs menu (on University lab computers, this is stored in a program group called SSH, Telnet, (s)FTP).
- The default WinSCP window will appear.
- 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.
- 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 Yes to accept the certificate and you will not be prompted again.
- Upon successful connection, you will be in your home directory on the server (right). 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. The left side displays local files. 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.
- WinSCP has drag-and-drop capabilities for uploading and downloading files and folders between the local computer and server. To download a file from the remote server, click and drag the file from the remote side (right) to the local (left) and release to download the file. To manually upload an individual file or folder, reverse this process.
- To download a file using a dialog, highlight the file on the remote server (right), select Files > Copy... from the menubar. Browse to the location on your local computer you wish to dowload the file to and click Copy. To upload a file using a dialog, reverse this process.
- To Synchronize files between the local computer and remote server, select Commands > Synchronize... from the menubar. Browse to the appropriate directories on the local and remote computer, select a direction (Remote moves newer files to the remote server) and click OK. A list of changed files (those that are newer on the local machine) will be displayed - uncheck any you do not wish to upload, then click OK.
- To save your connection settings for future use, select Session > Save Session... from the menubar and enter an appropriate name for this connection. To use the session, upon opening WinSCP you will be presented with a list of your saved sessions or from an existing connection you can select Sessions > Saved Sessions > name of session from the menubar to connect to the desired server.
