SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is the transfer protocol to view and transfer files over SSH. SFTP works the same as FTP but is encrypted.

SFTP Advantages

• Encrypted

• Nothing extra to install (such as FTP server)

• Works like any other FTP server

• Compatible with the popular clients such as Filezilla and WinSCP

• You can login to any SSH accessable Linux user.

How to use SFTP

• Connect like any FTP except it uses the port (default 22)

• Use your linux username / password

• You might need to set protocol to SFTP in your FTP client.

Bad practice to avoid

By all means, you should never

1. Connect to a server as root.

2. Use FTP if SFTP is available.

Root login to an FTP

Here is why you shouldn't

• By logging in as root, you might accidentally remove essential system files or put useless files into the wrong place and mess up with your system.

• But even more annoying, any file you'll write will belong to root, and the user won't be able to either read, change, or execute writtent files as root.

• FTP is an unencrypted protocol, therefore it is very unsecure to edit sensitive files using it.

How to operate without root FTP login ?

• If you need to edit system config files, then do like everyone else : use an SSH text editor like "nano" or "vi".

• Set your FTP so that you can login as users with a valid shell from the machine. Eventually, disable root FTP login.

• Oh, one more thing... Did we talk about SFTP ?