File transfer with SFTP
Last revision March 17, 2011
The original file transfer protocol for the Internet is called ftp. Unfortunately, the ftp protocol sends your password over the network in plain text, with no encryption. School of Earth Sciences computers will not accept plain ftp connections. This policy is enforced by the department network firewall. The only exception is that pangea accepts anonymous ftp connections to distribute public files.
To transfer files to or from Earth Sciences servers such as sestransfer.stanford.edu over the Internet, you must use a program that supports the scp or sftp protocol. Both of these protocols create a secure encrypted connection between your computer and the server.
Command line programs named scp and sftp are built-in to the Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems. In addition, Stanford has site-licensed client programs for Windows and Mac OS X that implement the sftp protocol using a graphical interface. These are available from the Essential Stanford Software web site.
You can transfer any type of file via scp or sftp, of any size up to the limit of available disk space. When connected to a remote server, you can move around in the file system and transfer files to or from any directory to which you have appropriate permission.
If you are using sestransfer.stanford.edu as a temporary location to transfer files between other computers, you can use up to 50 GB in the /scr1 scratch volume. But remember that files on the /scr1 disk are automatically erased with no warning after 15 days. You have a 10 GB quota on your home share.