In order to make a secure connection to a FTP server, you can use any application that support SFTP. SFTP (commonly referred to as Secure File Transfer Protocol ) can perform secure file transfers. For secure transfers, it uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports the SCP protocol in addition to SFTP.

For Microsoft Windows: (Network computers in EdUHK)

WinSCP is an open source SFTP client. It's main function is secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. All the network computers in EdUHK could access WinSCP through "Network Teaching Software".

How to use:

1. You can invoke WinSCP (SFTP) via the "Network Teaching Software".
2. When you open it, from the left panel, choose "Session" -> "Stored sessions".
3. Then choose one of the server from the preset list (e.g. N, S Drive). Then click "Login".
   
4. Enter your username and password when prompt.
5. Now you can transfer files between your PC and server by drag n drop.
   
6. If you want to disconnect the connection, from the tool bar, click "Session" -> "Disconnect"

• If you want to create a new server list in the main windows, click the "New" button on the left hand side.
• Giving a "Session Name" to it. Then enter the host name, "File Protocol" and click the "Save" button.

For Microsoft Windows: (Non-EdUHK computers)

If users want to install WinSCP at their own PC/notebooks and access our FTP server through secure FTP, they have to install WinSCP to the computer and configure to access the ftp sites using SFTP protocol. To download WinSCP, please kindly visit http://winscp.net. To configure WinSCP to access the following SFTP sites, you need to configure WinSCP with the right Host Name (e.g. msftp.eduhk.hk, sun.eduhk.hk or moon.eduhk.hk) and also the right protocol (i.e. SFTP). The following is a screen dump for the configuration.

If you are accessing outside campus network. You need to connect via VPN beforehand.

For Apple Mac:

There are various open source FTP/SFTP client for Mac OS X like Cyberduck.