Differences
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| 2011-05-22 | 2011-07-30 | ||
| no summary (Petr) | moved sftp, scp, ftp sections to separate articles (martin) | ||
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| ====== Supported Transfer Protocols ====== | ====== Supported Transfer Protocols ====== | ||
| - | As of version 4.0, WinSCP supports three transfer protocols, SFTP, FTP and SCP.·Currently, many servers support all three protocols. This document contains a comparison to help you to decide which is most appropriate for your needs. The comparison describes both features that are characteristic to the specific protocol as-is, and features that are caused by the implementation of the protocol in WinSCP. | + | WinSCP supports three transfer protocols: |
| + | * [[sftp|SFTP]]; | ||
| + | * [[ftp|FTP]]; | ||
| + | * [[scp|SCP]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Currently, many servers support all three protocols. This document contains a comparison to help you to decide which is most appropriate for your needs. The comparison describes both features that are characteristic to the specific protocol as-is, and features that are caused by the implementation of the protocol in WinSCP. | ||
| The default mode of operation is to use SFTP and fall back to SCP. Select your preferred protocol on [[ui_login_session#protocol_group|Login dialog]]. | The default mode of operation is to use SFTP and fall back to SCP. Select your preferred protocol on [[ui_login_session#protocol_group|Login dialog]]. | ||
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| - | ===== [[sftp]] SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) ===== | ||
| - | Despite SSH in its name, it is designed to work over any reliable data stream, but WinSCP supports only operation over SSH, which is also by far its most common usage. | ||
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| - | Being operated over SSH, it is secure protocol. In its basic functionally it is similar to old FTP, while having better designed advanced functionality. Unfortunately not all SFTP server implementations take advantage of the advanced features, yet. | ||
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| - | Especially in its later versions (from 4 upwards), it is more platform independent, compared to both FTP and SCP. | ||
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| - | Unlike SCP, for connection with an SFTP server you do not need access to shell (although some implementations may still require that). | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===== [[scp]] SCP (Secure Copy Protocol) ===== | ||
| - | SCP is mostly used with SSH-1. SCP is an older protocol but almost universally supported on Unix-like platforms as part of an SSH protocol suite. It is rarely supported on other platforms. SCP is a descendant of the ancient "rcp." | ||
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| - | ===== [[ftp]] FTP (File Transfer Protocol) ===== | ||
| - | FTP, being the oldest of the three, is most widespread transfer protocol of nowadays. In its basic form it is inherently insecure, sending all data (including passwords) unencrypted. There is also secure variants ([[ftps|FTP over TLS/SSL]]). FTP is functionally inferior to SFTP. Also it is less platform independent than later versions of SFTP, mainly in respect to directory listing. | ||
| ===== Protocol Comparison ===== | ===== Protocol Comparison ===== | ||