he SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management functionalities over secure connection.((Technically ~42ec398f8668f959b1354d5232de7034~ can operate over any reliable data stream, not necessarily a secure one. Though in a significant majority of uses, it operated over a secure SSH protocol. WinSCP in particular does not allow any other use.)) It was designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an extension of the Secure Shell protocol (~59223c75ea780f030855416dd7e55faa~) version 2.0 to provide secure file transfer capability.((The text is partially copied from  Wikipedia article on [[wp>SSH_File_Transfer_Protocol|SSH File Transfer Protocol]]. The text is licensed under [[wp>Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License|GNU Free Documentation License]].)) 		
		
n its basic functionality the ~aa5c6671c414c8ccf913f39e4bb1579d~ is similar to an old [[ftp|FTP]], while having better designed advanced functionality. Unfortunately not all SFTP server implementations take advantage of the advanced features, yet. 		
		
specially in its later versions (from 4 upwards), the ~faf3b153170d02e47786f9654422f223~ protocol is more platform independent, compared to both [[ftp|FTP]] and [[scp|SCP]]. 		
		
nlike SCP, for connection with an ~8c7e3fa48c91879b53cb3110d40704b1~ server you do not need access to shell (although some implementations may still require that). 		
		
ee also [[sftp_codes|SFTP status/error codes]].