Public / Private key on FTP Client

Forum Moderators: open

Message Too Old, No Replies

Public / Private key on FTP Client

SoCal resident

5:58 am on Feb 17, 2022 (gmt 0)

All:

A web server we use recently disabled password log on, we must now use public / private key to connect.

One of our non-technical team members is spooked by the process to convert over.

I use Transmit as the FTP client and converting over to public / private keys to connect was built in and was very easy, no real technical talent required. Unfortunately, the other team member uses a Windows 10 laptop and the Transmit FTP client is Mac only.

Can anyone suggest a Windows 10 FTP client that is similarly easy to set up public / private keys?

Thank you for any help.

~Paul

robzilla

9:17 am on Feb 17, 2022 (gmt 0)

It's pretty simple in FileZilla. Add a new site, select "SFTP" as protocol, "Key file" as Logon Type, then browse to select the PPK or PEM file and enter the username.

I mostly use CuteFTP for some reason but it's terrible on this front, you can only set up one key file for all your sites. So would not recommend that.

Also, FileZilla is free and CuteFTP is not :-)

I think WinSCP (also free) can do this as well, but haven't really used it myself.

Dimitri

1:58 pm on Feb 17, 2022 (gmt 0)

FileZilla for sure.

PuTTY Gen to generate the pair, but it seems you already have the key pair.

SoCal resident

5:04 pm on Feb 17, 2022 (gmt 0)

Thank you @robzilla and @Dimitri for the responses.

While I am already set up with PPK for log in, I am trying to assist a non-technical person to do the same using Widows 10. She would not have the PPK file on her computer, true?

We looked at the instructions at [wiki.filezilla-project.org...] and that seemed a bit formidable to the user. We were hoping to be able to have the client generate a public / private key and then give the public key which would then be given to the server admin. If it actually is that simple, we can give it a try.

Thanks for any advice, etc.

~Paul

robzilla

6:17 pm on Feb 17, 2022 (gmt 0)

You could generate the key files yourself, using PUTTYgen for example, and then pass on the private key to the user and the public key to the server admin. They're not tied to any computer; if you both log on to the server with the same username, you could even use the same key pair.

PUTTYgen is very easy to use, and is portable so it does not even need to be installed on the user's computer. Just open it, make sure RSA is selected with at least 2048 bits, then click "Generate" and move the mouse over the area above to generate a bit of randomness until the key is created. Then simply click "Save private key" to do just that, and you can copy the public key (or save it to a file) and share it with your admin.

There are online tools like this one [wpoven.com] but ideally you would create the key pair locally instead of over the public internet.

To download PUTTYgen, try to avoid the puttygen(.)com domain (first result on Google unfortunately) and get it from the official source:
Download page: [chiark.greenend.org.uk...]
Direct link to .exe: [the.earth.li...]