FTP for Windows NT and Macintosh Clients

12 January 1999

FTP is an old and insecure protocol using clear text passwords and has the ‘Guest’ account turned on by default on FTP servers. Each FTP server needs to be monitored and the logs checked. FTP server should not be installed on Windows NT.  (However, using FTP clients on Windows NT and Macintosh is fine.) We welcome users to work with us on using more secure alternatives to FTP servers that compromise NT accounts.

We recommend that you use anonymous and authenticated FTP on the central UNIX system as a secure alternative. There are UNIX computers set up for:

• Anonymous FTP: ftp.slac.stanford.edu
• Authenticated FTP: ftp-slac.slac.stanford.edu

For more information on both types of FTP, see Anonymous FTP at SLAC.

To set up for FTP access to your files from off-site:

1. You need an AFS account for requesting disk space or for using authenticated FTP.
2. Fill out the AFS disk space request to ask for FTP space. Below is an example on how to fill out the fields on this form for anonymous FTP (requesting disk space for authenticated FTP follows similar procedures):

   ACTION REQUESTED: Anonymous FTP Space
   NEW QUOTA REQUESTED: 5Mb (this is sufficient for most people)
   MOUNTPOINT: (can leave blank)
   PLANNING INFORMATION:

   1) Put files into ftp space for anonymous FTP collaborator off-site to pick up.
   2) Allow anonymous FTP collaborator from off-site to write files for me to pick up.

    

You will get a reply from unix-admin@slac.stanford.edu  that your request has been filled, and your directories directories have been created  This example below is for unix user account johnbrown for anonymous FTP:

• /afs/slac/public/users/johnbrown/ which is where you put files to be picked up by off-site collaborators (in this example, johnbrown) using anonymous ftp.
• /afs/slac/public/incoming/johnbrown which is where off-site collaborators (in this example, johnbrown) put files for on-site users to pick up.

If the collaborator has access to AFS at SLAC, instead of using anonymous FTP, he or she may simply connect to ftp-slac.slac.stanford.edu to
/afs/slac.stanford.edu/public/users, /afs/slac.stanford.edu/public/groups, or
/afs/slac.stanford.edu/public/software and copy in the file.

On your NT or Mac:

1. Start the client FTP program and connect to the host:

• ftp.slac.stanford.edu for anonymous FTP
• ftp-slac.slac.stanford.edu for authenticated FTP

Sign in with your AFS account and password  for authenticated FTP. For anonymous FTP you can sign in with guest information.

2. Leave your files at the directory space given to you by unix-admin (e.g., /afs/slac/public/users/johnbrown/   for user account johnbrown for anonymous FTP, and the off-site user can pick them up.

Owner: achan
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