FTP Server v Web Portal - Opinions

[Dredz]

FTP Server v Web Portal - Opinions

I’m in the process of developing a method of sharing files over the internet; I currently have two strategies on how to set this up. Firstly we have the trusty FTP server, I know how these work and I have set one up before. However a friend of mine has suggested that instead of an FTP server I should use a ‘web portal’ to get access to my files remotely. Security is a great concern as the files I am sharing belong to a company that has to maintain tight controls over its data it holds.

Could someone please explain to me what a web portal actually is, its level of security it offers and any benefits over an FTP server it may hold as I REALLY can’t decide…

Thank you

[JoeMSFN]

I assume you can setup your ftp server to require user name and password access (beyond ftp and email@company.com )

If this is the case, and security is a must, ftp users should use a SecureFTP program. This will encrypt the transmission. A friend of mine has to do this with downloading audio files, then typing the transcript and re-SFTPing it back to the company.

Here's my guess about your friends "web portal" meaing.

I highly doubt they mean you need to setup a nifty "news", "what's new", "forums" section, but more like requiring a username/password to download files. Basically you have to comeup with some sort of authentication scheme to get your users to download files.

I suppose with the "portal" method, you could setup some crude access rights so that only certain files are available to certain users. (where with the ftp method, the only way to do that would be to do a link to the file that person is supposed to have and put that link in their filespace).

Also with the "portal", you could make a self-signed encryption certificate and force all users to do "https" to get to your sight. Although the browser will complain about the cert. you won't have to worry about the headache of getting users to configure SFTP. (SFTP wasn't hard, but it wasn't point and click!)

If you do the portal method, you could configure something like temporary download links so that if the people are supposed to download only for a period of time, the link can expire.

Using a web page, you could provide helpfull documentation for each download. Maybe a FAQ or PDF documentation to help discourage you from becoming help desk.

So if you wan't to encrypt the transmission, control INDIVIDUAL user access to the files, and provide helpfull info for each file then the portal is kinda cool...

Just a few rambling ideas.