Key operations (General questions)

I'm not sure if I totally understand the key process when doing secure ftp. The public key would be generated once, on the client side. Would we have to place that key on the host side... in order for those two to talk to each other?
Or... would we send the public key, the first time we talk to the host?
From what I understand... both public keys need to match.
Do we, then... use a private key to talk during that send?
This process will only be sending files to the host.
Is it even necessary to use a private key?
I'll be using ftpdlx...
I'd appreciate any help you can give me

Hi,

If you don't want to use public key authentication you don't need to. Only if you server require such authentication. You can probably use password authentication with server.

Authentication is used to connect to server. When you are connected to server, it's same if you connect with password or with private key.

About public key authentication. First you generate private key and public key. This is key pair. Public key is key you can show to everyone. Private key is key you don't want to share with everyone. This is secret key.

You need to upload your public key to server. Then using your private key you can connect to that server.

Here is example how to connect to server with private key:
http://www.weonlydo.com/index.asp?kb=1&View=entry&EntryID=50

Why don't you give a try and let us know how it goes?

If you need any other help, please don't hesitate to ask. We are here to help you.

Regards,
Drazen

So... do you manually have to move the key file to the server,
before you would connect?

Hi,

If you don't want to use public key authentication you don't need to. Only if you server require such authentication. You can probably use password authentication with server.

Authentication is used to connect to server. When you are connected to server, it's same if you connect with password or with private key.

About public key authentication. First you generate private key and public key. This is key pair. Public key is key you can show to everyone. Private key is key you don't want to share with everyone. This is secret key.

You need to upload your public key to server. Then using your private key you can connect to that server.

Here is example how to connect to server with private key:
http://www.weonlydo.com/index.asp?kb=1&View=entry&EntryID=50

Why don't you give a try and let us know how it goes?

If you need any other help, please don't hesitate to ask. We are here to help you.

Regards,
Drazen

Hi,

Yes, you need to upload manually public key to your server. This should be done only once.

Usually public key is stored on server inside user .ssh folder in authorized_keys file.

Drazen

Hi,

Yes, you need to upload manually public key to your server. This should be done only once.

Usually public key is stored on server inside user .ssh folder in authorized_keys file.

Drazen

The person I'm working with... is telling me that the public keys can be created from both sides... which doesn't seem right.... Because they could come up with different values for the key
Unless there would be some way to control the key creation

Hi,

Public key is part of private key (this is key pair). You can create public key from your private key.

So they cannot create public key without your private key.

Drazen

Hi,

Public key is part of private key (this is key pair). You can create public key from your private key.

So they cannot create public key without your private key.

Drazen

Couple of other questions
and... I know I'm going a little beyond the typical questions of your software.
we may have multiple locations that would use the same login... does each public key have to be the same for each location using that login? Or... can it be set to use multiple public keys?
Can a large # of public key files be generated... and sent to locations?
Can the software use a key file that is generated from the host side?
Thanks for all your help
or.. can they

Hi,

Public key and Login aren't directly related, except that public key is set for the specific Login (user).

With that in mind, single user can be assigned multiple public keys. However, each public key has to have a matching private key.

As for the last question, yes. Component can use keys generated on the host side, provided that you are given the Private key that matches server's public key.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Damba