FTP(was Re: SCN: Homestead - no more free websites)

[Joe Mabel]

JJ,
When you say ftp would be 'insecure', what exactly do you mean? Obviously, ftp
is insecure in the sense that the content of what is ftp'd can be intercepted.
ftp without some secure protocol under it is not the way to move around (say)
credit card information or a password file , but as far as I know, no one is
proposing handling information of that sort via ftp.


ftp'ing the content of one's web site is pretty normal. It's how I put up the
content for the Crisis Resource Directory. As far as I know, SCN isn't opening
any ugly security holes by letting me do that. 'Put' access should be available
only to people with write access to the relevant directory, right? Given that,
I'm not sure in what sense you are saying ftp is insecure. Are you saying that
giving someone ftp access in some way endangers the integrity of the system or
of other user's sites? Or are you saying something else? Whatever you are
saying, I don't feel I've yet understood your concern, so clarification would be
greatly appreciated.

I certainly would not try to maintain the Crisis
Resource Directory on SCN if I had to do all of my editing by logging in or
telnet'ing in to SCN to do so. Besides everything else, I consider my data a lot better backed up when I keep
my staging environment on a different computer from my live environment. If we
want lots of sites on SCN, we pretty much have to give them ftp or something
equally easy to use, allowing them to edit in whatever environment they are most
comfortable with and then post to SCN.

--------------------
Joe Mabel

On Wed, 31 Oct 2001, Rod Clark wrote:

> > Currently _any_ general ftp service would be insecure.  It has nothing do
> > with "SCN hosting", but with technical issues that need addressing.
>
> JJ,
>
>    Every ISP in the world has an FTP service. If they didn't,
> they wouldn't have any customers.
>
>    Not having "customers" is our basic problem with this.
>
>    The other basic problem, as epitomized in your note above, is
> how to transfer the necessary knowledge to SCN's technical
> volunteers, that a good ISP understands, about how to do
> services such as this, so that we too can have customers,
> instead of not having them.
>
> Rod Clark
>
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