Thread: SFTP vs HTTPS for sending files home?

Am wondering about security sending my files home from my seedbox. I usually use sftp but it's stupidly slow. I mean 50kbs to 125kbs on a good day mostly around the 50kbs range. Now trying https i can get 300kbs but am worried about my isp. :D Whats the thoughts? I thought Sftp was more secure than https? Should I even be concerned? If wondering its Ma Bell the satan of internet providers I have.

Well first you have to remember it has a lot to do with how fast your internet connection is and the package you pay for monthly... Your ISP doesnt throttle your FTP transfer's (or at least mine dont)


Personally i use FTP with TLS/SSL, or i use FTP with SSL to transfer from my seedbox to my home computer....
I use cute FTP which i downloaded from a private tracker and i used the crack to register it and it works great. I can download at 14MB and that is my isp speed that i pay for a month as it is not throttled from my ISP because it is encrypted and they dont know it is torrent p2p traffic....

Using cute FTP i am pretty sure all your traffic is encrypted transferring from your seedbox to computer so that it doesnt look like p2p traffic....

Well I am using Filezilla and am connecting via sftp. So thats an SSL connection. But I dont understand why http is being faster. They suggest using http transfers but I dont think thats very secure. Speeds are supposed to be 12MB up and down

I'm using FTP with SSL connection from my dedicated to my home. I can download at 1MB/s.
But recently I started to use AJAXPLORER with HTTPS and I can download files at 4MB/s.

Hi Fidobonechewer

You should use FTP with SSL/TLS if you want some security and good speeds.

SFTP means "SSH File Transfer Protocol". In further details (with my little knowledge), when you use SFTP, you're basically connected to your seedbox via SSH and transfer files using this protocol. Your name and password are encrypted but not only : each packet you receive when you transfer files from your seedbox is encrypted on the fly which greatly decreases your download speed.

Well I am more about security than speed so more secure is better to me but damn the speed hit is quite a bit. Will have to look into SSL/TLS dont know if Filezilla supports this. I am not to sure about using HTTPS but apparently I can. I havent read much good on the security on HTTPS. Any thoughts on using that ?

Originally Posted by Opt1k4l

Hi Fidobonechewer You should use FTP with SSL/TLS if you want some security and good speeds. SFTP means "SSH File Transfer Protocol". In further details (with my little knowledge), when you use SFTP, you're basically connected to your seedbox via SSH and transfer files using this protocol. Your name and password are encrypted but not only : each packet you receive when you transfer files from your seedbox is encrypted on the fly which greatly decreases your download speed.

Originally Posted by Fidobonechewer

Well I am more about security than speed so more secure is better to me but damn the speed hit is quite a bit. Will have to look into SSL/TLS dont know if Filezilla supports this. I am not to sure about using HTTPS but apparently I can. I havent read much good on the security on HTTPS. Any thoughts on using that ?

Yes, Filezilla supports FTP with SSL/TLS. I'm using it for my seedbox without any problem.

For HTTPS, you should read the wiki article on the subject for example. It's here.

Originally Posted by Arakasi

I find using FTPS that I max out my home connection, and it should be the fastest secure method for downloading your files.

I max out my home connection using HTTPS with AJAXPLORER. I don't understand why it's not the case using FTPS.