Faculty & Staff FTP Instructions

Faculty and Staff

What Is Secure FTP

To be compliant with state and district security policy, Seattle Central has implemented Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) / Secure Copy (SCP) on our campus webserver. All accounts on seattlecentral.edu will need to be accessed using an FTP client that supports Secure FTP. If you are a Windows user, we recommend using FileZilla or WinSCP, if you are a Mac user, you may want to the Fugu, a graphical frontend for SFTP.

FileZilla Instructions | WinSCP Instructions

Instructions for Using FileZilla

1. Install FileZilla
   1. Download FileZilla (if you are using a popup blocker, you must click the info bar to allow the download
   2. Launch FileZilla_2_2_9_setup.exe - this will start the installation wizard
   3. Select a language
   4. Click "I agree" to the license agreement
   5. Select "Standard" installation->click "Next"
   6. Leave the installation folder location at the default setting ->click "Next"
   7. Choose a Start Menu folder or use the default ->click "Next"
   8. Select the "Use Secure Mode" and " Use Registry " options in the General Settings dialog. Leave "Force Registry even if XML exists" unchecked->click "Next"
   9. Click "Install"
2. Launch FileZilla
   
3. Setting Up a New Site
   1. Select File -> Site Manager from the menu
   2. Click the "New Site" button and give your site a name. You can put anything here but a good convention to use is account@server, so you would enter "YourAccountName@seattlecentral.edu".
   3. Host: seattlecentral.edu
   4. Servertype: (select from dropdown) SFTP using SSH2 - NOTE: the Port will automatically be reset to 22
   5. Logontype: Normal
   6. User ID: Your User ID
   7. (If available) Password: Your password - NOTE: passwords are case-sensitive on our system
   8. (If available) check the "Don't save password " box Never save your password! That is a violation of college, district and state security policy.
   9. Click "Connect"
   10. If the Password box was not available prior to clicking "Connect", you can now enter it here:
       
4. Disable Compression NOTE: Compression is known to cause problems when transferring perl (.pl) and .cgi scripts. To eliminate these problems, you will need to disable compression.
   
1. Select Edit -> Settings
2. Select "SFTP settings" under "Connection"
3. Select "No under "Use Compression"
5. You should now be logged into your account and ready to transfer files. The list of files on the left side is the Local System (your hard drive), the list of files on the right side is the Remote System (the server).
6. Select the files you want to transfer and either double-click or right-click and select "Upload" or "Download" from the context menu.

 

Instructions for Using WinSCP

1. Install WinSCP
   1. Download WinSCP (if you are using a popup blocker, you must click the info bar to allow the download
   2. The file "winscp376.exe" will download to your local drive, this is the actual WinSCP program
   3. Move "winscp376.exe" to a directory of your choice and begin using
2. Launch WinSCP
   
3. To set up NEW connection (you only do this once)
   1. Under Host Name, type www.seattlecentral.edu
   2. Under Username, type your username.
   3. Leave Password blank. Never! Save your password. That is a violation of college, district and state security policy.
   4. Select SFTP under Protocol
   5. Leave everything else at the default settings
   6. ClickSave
4. To use this connection,
   1. Select Stored sessions from the menu on the left
   2. Select the name you chose when you set up this connection
   3. ClickLogin
5. To copy files to the web server
   1. Connect using the instructions above
   2. In WinSCP navigate to the directory that should hold your file
   3. Open up Windows Explorer and navigate to the file you want to upload
   4. Drag the file from Windows Explorer and drop it into WinSCP
   5. A Copy box will open up asking for confirmation. ClickCopy
6. To copy files from the web server
   1. Connect using the instructions above
   2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the directory that should hold your file
   3. In WinSCP navigate to the file you want to download
   4. Drag the file out of WinSCP and drop it into Windows Explorer
   5. A Copy box will open up asking for confirmation. ClickCopy
7. To Disconnect
   1. Open the File menu and select Disconnect.
8. Unix File Permissions
   1. Right Click on a file in WinSCP
   2. Select Properties
   3. You will see a set of checkboxes which will allow you to set unix file permissions

IMPORTANT: Always make a backup of what is on the server before you overwrite it with new files from your hard drive unless you are uploading files for the first time to a new account.