This document describes how to access your CIS Unix home directory from your own computer using the SFTP and FTP services on CIS Unix servers. You can access your CIS Unix home directory using client software running on your own computer. You can use your client software to transfer files back and forth between your CIS Unix directory and your computer; you can also remove or rename files in your CIS Unix directory.
Exact details depend greatly on the client software; they all differ. The good news is that there are a lot of possibilities, and you can choose the software you like best.
You Gotta Encrypt
As of May 18, 2012, the CIS Unix servers no longer offer unencrypted FTP access. Any access to the FTP service must be accompanied by Transport Layer Security (TLS); this is sometimes referred to as "FTPS".
The CIS Unix servers also support access via SFTP ("Secure File Transfer Protocol"), where encryption is supported by the ssh (secure shell) protocol.
Hostnames
To establish a connection between your computer and the CIS Unix servers, you need to specify a hostname in your client software.
For FTPS access, specify cisunix.unh.edu as
the hostname. The FTPS service uses a self-signed host "certificate",
which your client will warn you about accepting. Assuming you're
Pretty Sure you're connecting to the CIS Unix server, it's OK to
accept it.
For SFTP access, it might be slightly less confusing
to use one of the individual CIS Unix
hostnames instead: fermat.unh.edu,
or newton.unh.edu. (The reason is
complex, and not too interesting: each of the servers answering
to cisunix.unh.edu
has a different "host key", and
this can confuse an SFTP client.)
Clients
There are good FTP and SFTP clients available for all major operating systems. We will describe a few below, but these by no means exhaust your choices. Details on configuration and use of FTP and SFTP clients are beyond the scope of this document.
FileZilla is free client sofware available for Windows (XP, Vista, and 7), MacOS X (version 10.5 or newer), and Linux (most popular distributions). It supports both supported connection protocols discussed above, SFTP and FTPS. It is available from the FileZilla Project website.
WinSCP is also free, and it runs on any Windows version from Windows 95 up to Windows 7. It also supports all communication protocols discussed above. It is available from the WinSCP website.
FTPS access
is built into MacOS X:
Open
the Finder. Use the Go menu or press Apple-K to Connect to Server. Type
ftps://username@cisunix.unh.edu, using your own UNH username, then press
Enter. Enter your username and password at
the Log On screen. Voila!
Your files and folders will appear in a
their own window.
On Linux and MacOS X, you can give the sftp command in a
terminal window. (The sftp command is provided by the
operating system.) For example:
% sftp joe@fermat.unh.edu
This will attempt to log you in to the joe account on
fermat.unh.edu, probably asking for a password first. You'll
want to use your own username instead, and you can specify
newton.unh.edu instead of
fermat.unh.edu. This non-GUI access is very bare-bones.
But once you get the hang of it, it works fine.
Finally, if you're running the GNOME interface on a Linux machine,
you can choose "Connect to Server…" from the "Places" menu in the
top menu bar. In the resulting dialog box, choose "SSH" from the
"Service Type:" pulldown menu; type either of
newton.unh.edu
or fermat.unh.edu into the Server:
field; type the path to your CIS Unix home directory into the
"Folder" field; and type your username into the "User Name" field.
Then hit "Connect". You'll be asked for your password. Once you
provide that, your CIS Unix home directory will be displayed
in a window
on your computer so you can access it as if it were a local
filesystem.
Page Maintenance: Paul A. Sand <pas@unh.edu> Last modified: 2012-05-26 1:15 PM EDT
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