he SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management functionalities over secure connection.((Technically ~611390b92245ea0dd66838cc6cc58f8b~ 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 (~d4681adcb4ca9a520f7b053112ceae92~) 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 ~5b85b6f49c5c860e46bd6c3f294140d9~ 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 ~2de160cd609ee71241947c3699128c9b~ protocol is more platform independent, compared to both [[ftp|FTP]] and [[scp|SCP]]. 		
		
nlike SCP, for connection with an ~472e7db262072495a5c269f5ceb75bd3~ server you do not need access to shell (although some implementations may still require that). 		
		
ee also [[sftp_codes|SFTP status/error codes]].