Question

Why choose an FTPS solution over HTTPS (using HttpPostedFile)

Asked by: John500

greetings,

I'm trying to figure out what solution our company should settle with for web file transfers.  Our service to our customers is large document distribution.  Thus, the customer uploads the desired files to our site and stipulates who should receive the documents.  We in-turn fill the request.  Given this information, why would I choose FTP over HTTP or vice versa?  The web application handles user tokens so mapping users to appropriate disk space/folders is not an issue.  

Further more, we just acquired a certificate (GeoTrust) to satisfy handshake requirements with Intuit for credit card transactions.  Therefore, the server will have encryption capabilities but I'm not sure if this security can extend to file transfers.  In other words, I can see why we need a signed certificate from Intuit for credit card transactions but I don't see how this encryption could benefit our customers for file transfers if we don't require them to have a signed certificate with us.  Is there any way to make use of the server certificate for file transfers?

In summary, we already have a secure server for credit card transactions between our server and Intuit... but before we charge the customer for our service, the customer has to upload files for distribution.  Is there any way to make use of the secure server with our customers, and if so, is FTP favored over HTTP for any reason (i.e. speed etc).

Thanks

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-05 at 11:28:50ID24875708
Tags

Web servers

,

HTTP

,

FTP

,

Security

Topics

Web Servers

,

Miscellaneous Security

,

Microsoft IIS Web Server

Participating Experts
5
Points
500
Comments
9

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Certificates??????
    Hi... Can someone explain in detail what "Certificates" are and how to use them? Where to get them? Why have them? How much do they cost? who pays for them? Do they only work with Netscape Com? etc..... regards
  2. FTPS & Certificate
    Hi I understand that FTPS is actually ftp working on SSL. I was wondering whether this will be a good option to upload and download file than using VPN. However, i have no ntentions of going to a commercial CA. I am using SBS2003. they have this feature that helps you create ...
  3. I cannot download the patches available from Intuit???
    Patches are available to be manually downloaded from Intuit so that all firm members can apply the patch without having the download wait. When I attempt to download, I get "Page cannot be displayed" in IE and "Page reset by server" in Firefox. I have se...
  4. SSL Certificate for FTP server
    I need a third party SSL certificate for my FTP server and need to know what type of certificate to buy; standard or premium?
  5. Need A favor
    Hi Guys, I need a favor, i want writing batch script for copy file to startup. I have windows 98 and windows XP. for windows 98 it smooth, but for the windows XP, it seems like trouble, because different PC different username, the script that i was wrote purpose to run when...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2009-11-05 at 14:08:42ID: 25754592

John, my thinking favors FTP over HTTP for performance reasons.  HTTP is an easy way for WWW clients to send small things - a photo, etc.  FTP is what all the major print shops use to transfer large-scale final images and PDFs.  I don't do this in my work so I am not well enough versed to give you the detailed examples, but I know what I've been asked to use for an interface when I have sent photos that need to be made up to the size of a bus stop.  100% of the time it was some kind of anonymous FTP.  HTH, ~Ray

 

by: servoadminPosted on 2009-11-05 at 14:12:25ID: 25754625

IIS 6 ( Win 2003):::::::
Secure FTP is another option...but Windows does not support it.. Third party S/W are avbl.. and you can go ahead if its a must.. How many users need FTP access, If its few hundreds then its better to go for Windows FTP and setting quotas for size restrictions... If its crossing 1000s then u can go for Secutre FTP third party software ...

IIS 7 (Win 2008) :::::
If its Windows 2008 then Good news.. SSL FTP is avbl...
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/304/using-ftp-over-ssl/

Pass your coment...

 

by: servoadminPosted on 2009-11-05 at 14:56:36ID: 25755028

 

by: richrumblePosted on 2009-11-05 at 19:53:57ID: 25756486

FTP supports compression and binary or ascii transfers.
http://www.rhinosoft.com/newsletter/NewsL2008-03-18.asp
http://www.rhinosoft.com/newsletter/newsl2004-08-03.asp?prod=rs
SFTP is in of itself it's own protocol, and FTPS is much like HttpS, a plain-text protocol sent over SSL/TLS. Other than the "S" part, it's no different than FTP itself, same with http.
FTP compression isn't the very best, but it can save you from zipping files before sending in most cases.
-rich

 

by: mplungjanPosted on 2009-11-05 at 22:06:01ID: 25756918

Does filezilla support ftps? Or is it all down to what the server supports in this case?

 

by: mplungjanPosted on 2009-11-05 at 23:42:15ID: 25757341

PS: John, all emails to you bounce

 

by: fosiul01Posted on 2009-11-06 at 00:47:23ID: 25757580

Good morning :

 Therefore, the server will have encryption capabilities but I'm not sure if this security can extend to file transfers.  : Yes  it can be done. if i talk abt file transfer over http, then ssl certificate is valid for the domain. so you can use https  to any page.

example : i will talk on linux point of view( as i dont have too much experience about windows)

http://mydomain.com/index.html  -> home page
https://mydomain.com/sales.php  -> secure sales page
http://mydomain.com/filetransfer/  -> unsecured files tansfer page
https://mydomain.com/filetransfer  -> secure files transfer page.

so bottom line is , if you have  ssl certificate you can use this any pages in your domian, there is not any restriction that you will only  put those for credit card transaction




 can see why we need a signed certificate from Intuit for credit card transactions but I don't see how this encryption could benefit our customers for file transfers if we don't require them to have a signed certificate with us   ::

Ok if you think your files which customer will download they are not  sensetive then you dont need to use . ppl need encryption only when they need to protect their data.
example : if you dont have ssl certificate then there would be other way to protect your data

like : encryp the data in your end before uploading to the server when when client will download the data then can decrypt again.

so if your data is hacked in between download from your server to client pc , hacker would not be able to break the encryption anyway. so this is another from of protecting data



Is there any way to make use of the secure server with our customers, and if so, is FTP favored over HTTP for any reason (i.e. speed etc).  :::

I never comparison which one is fast. but if you look at microsoft and any redhat. or mysql serer you can download file via http and ftp both... so that meants there is not too much difference between 2.

but if you use ftp then i will have to say , use proteced mode, dont use Annynomous. i dont like to keep open my server to every one!!!


about ssl certificate for ftp. you can.. but i never used it. i guess @richrumble gave 2 link for that,
i will try to get more informaiton about how to implement ssl for ftps and will keep it post


 

by: John500Posted on 2009-11-12 at 11:13:01ID: 31650667

Thanks!  It looks to me that the most important feature would be that HTTP doesn't support binary files or does it?

 

by: Ray_PaseurPosted on 2009-11-12 at 11:39:29ID: 25808045

I would guess that HTTP supports binary files, since I use it to upload pictures!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...