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March 31, 2008

How It Works -- File Transfer Protocol

FTPPlanet discovered this blog post which provides a basic walk-through of FTP. An easy way to get up and running with sharing large files via FTP is to download and install a version of WS_FTP Home or WS_FTP Professional which is produced by Ipswitch, the most popular file transfer software. Happy Monday!

Posted by Erik Small at 10:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 26, 2008

FTPS

Confused by the difference between FTP and FTPS?

Basically, FTPS is a secure flavor of the basic FTP protocol.

FTPS uses the SSL protocol to encrypt file transfers to help ensure that they remain safe and confidential.

Here's a blog post by Natala that highlights FTPS a bit more: "FTP/SSL is a name used to encompass a number of ways in which FTP software can perform secure file transfers. Each way involves the use of a SSL/TLS layer below the standard FTP protocol to encrypt the control and/or data channels. It should not be confused with either SSH file transfer protocol (SFTP, or FTP over SSH)."

The WS_FTP Professional secure file transfer client lets you choose between transferring files over basic FTP and secure FTPS (SSL) and SFTP (SSH) protocols. You get the ability to use all three file transfer protocols in one software program!

And for folks running your own server, the WS_FTP Server with SSH enables transfers over FTP, FTPS (SSL) & SFTP (SSH) as well.

Posted by Hugh Garber at 06:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 24, 2008

Any Questions?

The FTPplanet Discussion Forums are a great source of information, education and a place where folks can ask questions to other members of the FTPplanet commuity.

For a long time the discussion forums were busy with activity. But there has been a lot less postings recently. So I thought I'd take a minute and make sure folks knew about the forums and encourage everyone to post.

Topics can be anything you like, such as:
* General questions about how to use FTP
* Products you recommend
* Post some FTP tips & tricks
* Website creation
* Security concerns

You can click the links in this post to access FTPplanet's discussion forums... Or you can click the link in the top right corner in the "Quick Links" box.

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 21, 2008

File Transfer web sale - 20% off

Ipswitch File Transfer is running a great discount on WS_FTP Professional right now on their website. If you need a fully-licensed file transfer application, this is a great discount. The product comes with 1-year of technical support, including free updates to the software.

Here's the link to the discount - it's available online only!
http://wsftp.com/products/ws_ftp_professional/

(See link on right side of page)

Enjoy the weekend!

- - FTPPlanet.com

Posted by Erik Small at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 19, 2008

Unfortunate Breach - Importance of data transfer encryption

FTPPlanet caught the news of this recent security breach at Hannaford grocery markets in the Northeast. The news surfaces a growing importance of data security and encryption when electronic payments are processed. Our parent company, Ipswitch, has been developing secure file transfer solutions into it's WS_FTP product family. There is a section on the website that speaks to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): Safeguard credit cardholder data and sensitive card authentication information. PCI DSS provides a minimum security standard for protecting cardholder data - both in-transit and in-storage - to ensure that members, merchants and service providers maintain a consistent and secure cardholder data environment.

Posted by Erik Small at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 18, 2008

IE bug causes FTP security concern

Well, looks like there is a newly discovered bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer that could impact folks using their browsers for FTP.

"A flaw in the way Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser processes FTP commands could let attackers steal or erase data from a victim's FTP site.

The bug, which affects users of IE 6 and the unsupported IE 5 browser, gives an attacker a way of hijacking the victim's FTP sessions. But a successful attack would be very hard to pull off and would only work in very precise, targeted attacks, security experts said.

The attacker would need to know the victim's username on the FTP server and the victim would have to already be logged into the server, using IE. Under those conditions, the victim could be sent a malicious FTP link that would then execute commands on the victim's FTP server."

Of course, I'm tempted to point out that this flaw is reportedly almost identical to a similar bug that was identified and fixed in 2006....

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 14, 2008

Using FTP to update Blogger

Here's how Peter Bishop used WS_FTP to update his blog.

Task: Upload a picture and a voice clip to his blog

Peter's solution:

* I uploaded (FTPd) my picture to my own website.

* Then went into Blogger and put the URL of my picture on my website

* Next, for the voice clip, I used my MP3 player in sound recording mode. In order to keep the file as small as possible, I set the sound quality to the lowest setting.

* I connected the MP3 player into my computer and used Windows Explorer to transfer the .mp3 sound file to a folder (called My Sound Recordings) on my computer.

* I uploaded this sound file to my website using FTP. (I have a commercial FTP program called "WS_FTP")

* Then went into Blogger and typed in the URL of my voice clip (.mp3 file) on my website.

* Tested and finished.

Posted by Hugh Garber at 08:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 11, 2008

Securely Transfer Health Records - HIPPA Compliance

I found this blog post on a common occurance of transferring records from one place to another -- and the package mysteriously ends up in the wrong hands! I think we will see a growing urgency for strong file management and security practices. Interestingly, the blog post mentions Secure FTP as a good way to protect the data transfer electronically. Our parent company Ipswitch File Transfer also has some good resources on HIPAA compliance for the healthcare industry. HIPAA resources can be found here: http://www.wsftp.com/solutions/healthcare.asp

Posted by Erik Small at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 07, 2008

WS_FTP Professional

Here's another blogger raving about the Ipswitch WS_FTP Professional secure file transfer client.....

WS_FTP Professional gives you lightning-fast transfer speeds, along with industry-leading security with 256-bit AES over SSL / FTPS & SSH / SFTP connections, fully-integrated PGP mode, and file verification mechanisms, and time-saving automation features like, scheduling, backup, synchronization, search, compression, scripting and email notifications.

When I read this the word "lightning-fast" jumped out at me.

The definition of lightning is: "a brilliant electric spark discharge in the atmosphere, occurring within a thundercloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground."

Yes, I agree.... WS_FTP Pro is lightning-fast!!! And I LOVE the association with discharging into the atmosphere. After all, the Internet is the atmosphere, right?

Posted by Hugh Garber at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 05, 2008

Do you know who is really logging on to your server?

This blog post is gonna feel like a splash of cold water on the faces to anyone who owns, manages or administers a file transfer server. If you are simply relying on usernames & passwords to safeguard access to your server you may have more to worry about that you think!

Here's a story from TechWorld titled "Logins for 8,700 FTP servers found on sale" that describes a recent cyber crime in which hackers were selling logon credentials to corporate file transfer servers.

Internet security firm Finjan reported that they discovered a "database containing account usernames, passwords and server addresses for a staggering 8,700 FTP servers, many of which were being used by US Fortune 100-level enterprises."

Key takeaway --> There are bad people out there that want to hack into your file transfer server to either access the files/data, inject viruses, or profit from the stolen information in some other way.

Be safe... Be smart... And always surf safely!

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

March 03, 2008

Go Fetch!

I'm often asked what file transfer client I recommend for use on a Mac computer. The answer is simple -- Fetch.

The fine folks over at Fetch Softworks have made a special 20% discount available to FTPplanet readers. Simply enter the coupon code "WSFTP20" in the shopping cart to take 20% off a license of Fetch.

Fetch runs on Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer and it can transfer files over FTP protocol as well as the encrypted SSH and SSL protocols. Its user interface emphasizes simplicity and ease of use..... And file transfer speed is better than any other Mac program I've tried.

Posted by Hugh Garber at 07:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page