Question: Does 3Essentials support secure FTP (SFTP) or FTPS?
Answer: 3Essentials has enabled FTPS (FTP over SSL) on it's Shared Hosting servers which support this functionality*, which offers a new level of security and protection for our shared hosting customers. Please note, sFTP and FTPS are two different solutions, and 3Essentials hosting solutions provide support for FTPS, not sFTP. For infromation on the difference, please see KB article: Definition: FTPS vs sFTP.
The continued wide usage of FTP for file transfer within the hosting industry has continued to be an area of weakness for the entire industry. With standard FTP, communications are not encrypted - even the FTP username and password are sent in clear text, without encryption. This means if the communication is monitored by a simple trojan on the user's system, or intercepted anywhere between the user and the FTP server (for example by a worm on your Cable/DSL modem), the user and password is easily retrieved from that communication. It's then quickly used by that hacker to access website files, modifying them to insert hidden links to other malicious websites, deface the website, or other nefarious activities.
FTPS (FTP over SSL) uses the same 128bit SSL encryption you trust to protect your web-based online shopping and banking activities which use HTTPS/SSL. FTPS will allow you to use a standard and familiar FTP client that supports FTPS services to upload/download/manage your files just as you did before, but the transmission of your username and password, as well as your data, will be encrypted as it traverses the Internet between your PC and the FTP server.
Most current FTP clients now support FTPS , and your preferred FTP client likely already does. We have provided instructions for configuring some common FTP clients for FTPS here: Configuring your FTP client for FTPS . If you do not see your FTP client listed, please see the "Generic FTP Client" section of that article, and if those instructions are insufficient to assist you, you may:
- consult your FTP client software company for information on how to enable FTPS
- contact our support team, and if we can obtain a copy of the FTP client, we'll test and provide you the proper configuraiton steps.
During deployment of FTPS, both FTP and FTPS continuee to be supported on all servers. 3Essentials is now moving forward with disabling standard FTP on those servers that do support FTPS. Before FTP is disabled on those servers, advance notification will be sent to all customers on servers which support FTPS , notifying them that FTP will be disabled. leaving only FTPS support as the only** active file transfer method on those servers.
- *FTPS is currently enabled on the following servers:
- WEB26, WEB24, WEB22, WEB20, WEB18, WEB16, WEB9
- FTP will be disabled on these servers according to the following schedule:
-
|
Server
|
Notification Date
|
FTP Disable Date
|
|
web26
|
8/16/2010
|
9/19/2010
|
|
web24
|
8/23/2010
|
9/26/2010
|
|
web22
|
8/30/2010
|
10/3/2010
|
|
web20
|
9/6/2010
|
10/10/2010
|
|
web18
|
9/13/2010
|
10/17/2010
|
|
web16
|
9/20/2010
|
10/24/2010
|
- *FTPS will not be enabled on:
- all other servers not listed above due to limitations of the specific software build on those servers.
- If your hosting plan is on one of these servers and you require FTPS, please contact our billing team regarding updating your hosting plan to a current hosting plan which includes FTPS services.
Related articles you may find helpful:
*For Managed Virtual/Dedicated Server customers, secure file transfer services are available as an add-on, and may require upgrade of your managed dedicated or virtual server hosting plan to a more advanced FTP server product which natively supports SFTP or FTPS. It is prefereable to implement this support during the build process, but we may be able to retrofit existing managed services. For new customers, please contact the sales team with your interest, and one of our dedicated/virtual server sales representatives can provide you information on pricing and options. For existing customers, please contact the support team, who can review your current configuration and provide information on available options.
**For SHARED HOSTING customers who will require continued support of standard FTP, you can add an optional Dedicated IP address to your hosting, which allows us to customize your FTP services, including allowing standard FTP in addition to FTPS. Note that for Plesk/Windows Shared Hosting customers, a Dedicated IP (or as Plesk refers to it, an Exclusive IP) can be shared among all your domains within a single hosting plan, meaning you don't need to add a Dedicated IP for each domain, just one for the hosting plan. A single Dedicated IP cannot be used to provide HTTPS/SSL support to more than a single domain, but it can be shared among multiple domains for the purposes of HTTP (non-HTTPS) and FTP. |
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