Robo-FTP User's Guide > Using Robo-FTP > Connecting To Sites

An SSH key can be used instead of a password to authenticate to an SFTP server. It can also be used in addition to a password, for additional security. To use an SSH key for authentication on SFTP connections:

1. Create or import a public-key / private-key-pair.

The Configurator's built-in SSH key creator creates a private key with a corresponding public key and loads them into its SSH key store.

You can also import keys from any other compatible SSH key generator utility such as the one distributed with the commercial product by SSH Communications Security at http://www.ssh.com or the one distributed with the free OpenSSH at http://www.openssh.org. Imported keys are added to the Configurator's SSH key store.

2. Let the remote server know about your public key.

Your public key must be loaded on the remote server where it will be used to authenticate your connection. You can extract your public key from the Configurator's key store by:

a.Right-Click the desired SSH key row in the grid and choose Copy Public Key from the pop-up menu to copy the contents of your public key into the Window clip board.

b.Open a plain text editor program like the Window's Notepad and paste your public key data.

c.Save the file with a name indicating it's contents. Many servers have a specific name requirement like authorized_keys or authorized_keys2.

d.Send the file to the administrator of the remote SFTP site and inform them that it contains your public key in OpenSSH SSH-2 format. Some sites require you to upload this file yourself to a sub-folder named .ssh under your home folder on the server.

3. Let Robo-FTP know to use a SSH key to authenticate.

There are two method of letting Robo-FTP know to use an SSH key to authenticate with an SFTP server:

•If a Managed Site name is passed to FTPLOGON command's [ site ] argument and the "SSH Key Auth" checkbox is selected in that Managed Site record then the key listed in the list box below that checkbox will be used for authentication.

•If the FTPLOGON command's /keyauth option is used then Robo-FTP will used the key marked as the Default in the Configurator unless the [ site ] argument specifies a Managed Site record that specifies a different SSH key.