If SSH isn’t installed on your server. Install an SSH tool such as OpenSSH on the server you want to connect to using the sudo apt install openssh-server command. If your firewall is blocking your SSH connection. Disable the firewall rules blocking your SSH connection by changing the destination port’s settings to ACCEPT. The SSH2 protocol implemented in OpenSSH is standardized by the IETF secshworking group and is specified in several RFCs and drafts. The overall structure of SSH2 is described in the architectureRFC. It is composed of three layered components. Jun 05, 2020 Note:During key generation, OpenSSH checks to see if there is a.ssh folder underneath the user's home directory. If one does not exist, the folder will be created in the user's home directory and the public/private key pair will be stored in it. The public key will have a.pub extension; for example, idrsa.pub or idecdsa.pub.
Windows SFTP client apps
Specialized applications from connecting to SFTP.
| Application | Note |
|---|---|
| WinSCP | Free and open source SFTP GUI client. Despite its name it's not limited to SCP, but works with SFTP and FTP/SSL too. |
| Filezilla Client | Free and open source FTP, FTP/SSL and SFTP GUI client (beware of adware). |
| Bitvise SSH Client | SSH tunneling, SSH terminal emulation and SFTP client. Commercial. |
| JSCAPE AnyClient | Web-based SFTP/FTP/FTPS/WebDAV/S3 client. Commercial with free version. |
| Tectia SSH Client | SFTP/SSH client from the creators of the SSH protocol. Commercial. |
| VanDyke SecureFX | SFTP/FTP/SCP client for Windows, Mac and Linux. Commercial. |
| FlashFXP | SFTP/FTP client for Windows. Commercial. |
| FTP Voyager | FTP/FTP client for Windows. Free. |
| WS_FTP Professional Client | SFTP/FTP client for Windows. Commercial. |
| Axway Secure Client | SFTP/FTP client for Windows. Commercial. |
| SmartFTP | FTP (File Transfer Protocol), FTPS, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, SSH, Terminal client. Commercial. |
| GoAnywhere SFTP client for MFT | SFTP client from creators of GoAnywhere MFT server. Commercial. |
SFTP plugins for popular apps
| Swish (for Windows Explorer) | Shows SFTP server in Windows Explorer. It's not a filesystem driver, so this sftp drive cannot be used from command line or from inside another program. Free and open source. |
| SFTP plugin for Total Commander | Official plugin from the creators of Total Commander. Free. |
| Chrome sFTP Client | sFTP Client for Google Chrome / Chrome OS. |
Command-line clients
Use those if you want to access SFTP from a script or if you simply prefer command line over GUI.
| PuTTY PSFTP | PuTTY SFTP tool for those who are not afraid of command line. Available for Windows and Un*x-like systems. Free and open source. |
| OpenSSH | OpenSSH's 'ssh' command is available on most Un*x systems. Free and open source. Windows port is included in CygWin. |
| Bitvise Command-Line SFTP Client | Advanced command-line SFTP client for Windows. Commercial. |
Map SFTP server as a network drive
Do you want to use a SFTP connection as a Windows mapped drive? Assign it a drive letter and use it from any application? Try one of those:
| NetDrive | SFTP, FTP, DropBox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive and few others. Commercial. Reverts to a limited free version when the trial is over. Windows. |
| Web Drive | SFTP, FTP, DropBox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive and few others. File system level locking symantics. Synchronization mode and network drive mode. Commercial. Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. |
| ExpandDrive | SFTP, FTP, DropBox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive and few others. Commercial. Windows and Mac. |
| SFTP NET Drive | SFTP. Commercial. Free for personal use. Windows. |
| win-sshfs | Maps remote SFTP drive and make it available to all applications. Open source, last updated in 2012. Works on Windows 7, newer OS versions are not supported. Several forks exists. |
| WinSshFS 4every1 edition | Fork of win-sshfs which works on Win10. Free and open source. |
| WinSshFS FiSSH edition | Fork of win-sshfs focused on UI changes. Free and open source. |
| SSHFS for Linux | Enables you to mount a remote folder on Linux over SSH. FUSE-based, free and open source. Part of most Linux distros. |
| SSHFS for OS X | SSH File System for MAC OS X based on FUSE for OS X. Free and open source. |
Some server providers, such as Amazon EC2 and Google Compute Engine, disable SSH password authentication by default. That is, you can only log in over SSH using public key authentication.
SFTP is a protocol that runs over SSH, so this means SFTP using passwords will not work by default when SSH password authentication is disabled.
To enable SSH password authentication, you must SSH in as root to edit this file:
Then, change the line
to
After making that change, restart the SSH service by running the following command as root:
Enable Logging In as root
Some providers also disable the ability to SSH in directly as root. In those cases, they created a different user for you that has sudo privileges (often named ubuntu). With that user, you can get a root shell by running the command:
If you instead want to be able to directly SSH in as root, again edit this file:
And change the line
to
Openssh Sftp Home Directory
After making that change, restart the SSH service by running the following command as root:
Openssh Sftp Chroot
If you enable this setting, don't forget to set a strong password for root by running the command.