ssh / sftp secure connection

[iLLuSi0nS]

I have always had a VPS and now looking to switch to a HostGator reseller account, and besides the disadvantages of having to share a server with potentially really bad neighbors, I cannot live with the fact that HG is denying me the ability to connect to my filesystem SECURELY. I understand they give you 1 ssh account to your "main" account, but that means only your "main" account can have a secure connection and no other sites on your account.
I have been told this can happen for an extra $10 which you would need to contact support and request a jailed ssh to that cpanel account.

I dont know what to do. There is no way i will connect to my filesystem using plain old unsecure ftp. I have personal and private data and cannot use such reckless means of connecting to my server.

WHAT CAN I DO. what does the millions of other people do, i am sure im not the only person to have encountered this problem. Some1 please shed some light on this. Thank you

[striddy]

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

I cannot live with the fact that HG is denying me the ability to connect to my filesystem SECURELY. I understand they give you 1 ssh account to your "main" account, but that means only your "main" account can have a secure connection and no other sites on your account.

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

There is no way i will connect to my filesystem using plain old unsecure ftp. I have personal and private data and cannot use such reckless means of connecting to my server.

My reseller account allows me to use SFTP under all client logins. All I had to do is request SSH access via a support ticket. Was setup in less than 30 mins.

[DannyD]

And its free .

[episkey]

Any recommendations for a sftp client that has a GUI?

I'm thinking about trying WinSCP, which seems to use a PuTTY SSH core. It would be good to know if anyone else has got that working or has an alternative recommendation.

[kmaw]

FileZilla does.

[slapshotw]

I use WinSCP when I need to use Windows and it works well.

[iLLuSi0nS]

dammit...I have gotten over like 10 different responses from 10 different hostgator sales reps. Some say yes some say no, but the ones that say yes, always apologize and say they were mistaken and the real answer is no, you only get ssh for the main reseller account and not for anyone else. Who am i suppose to believe...this is pissing me off

here are the responses i have recieved which is very depressing as it shows that no host gator rep knows what he is saying

Hello,

SSH is not the only way you can securely access your files. If you log into your WHM, it is via the shared SSL, so there is an encrypted connection. From your WHM, you can access your clients cPanels, also through the shared SSL. From inside cPanel, you can use the file manager to upload / edit files.

As far as SSH is concerned, there is a $10/per cpanel charge, which you have already been made aware of. When you login your your main account, you would be placed into /home/{reseller username}/and if you were to login to your customers account via SSH, /home/{customers cpanel username}/. So no, you can not access your clients files and folder via SSH through your main reseller accounts SSH.


If there is anything else we can do to help, please let us know.

Thank you,
Seth Daughenbaugh
HostGator Sales & Support

Here is another response from another rep that doesnt know what hes saying

Hello,

SSH is available for your sub accounts for a one time fee of $10 per account. Each accounts is created individually so you will not be able to access your sub accounts through your main reseller account.

Sincerely,
James
Hostgator.com

another useless response

You would not have root access to the servers so you will not be able to sftp to our servers as that requires root access to the servers to do that. The only account you will be able to do that with is your main reseller account that you would purchase and that would only be jailed ssh shell access. Meaning that is is only access to your main reseller account. If you want to have jailed shell ssh access enabled on your clients cpanel accounts then it would cost 10 dollars per cpanel account to have jailed shell enabled for. Them main account is free it does not cost anything to have it enabled on that. So you would have to login to each account in individually




If you have any issues or concerns please let us know.

Sincerely,
Shaun St. John
Hostgator Support Team

I mean should i keep going cuz i asked the same question a few more times and got a few more responses. This is ****ing ridiculous and im sorry if i cuss or say stupid things, but i have gotten nothing but stupid responses. Who the **** am i suppose to ****ing believe i am soooo pissed. All i want is a straight ****ing answer and everyone says something different. Where am i suppose to go, who am i suppose to believe. I dont know if i even want to sign up anymore cuz i am soo mad. I have been asking the same ****ing question for over a week and everytime i ask, i get more and more confused. All i want is a secure connection to my files to ALL the accounts resellers and main...ALL my accounts.

someone either shoot me in the head and end all this, or tell me something that will get me interested again in HG. thanks

[slapshotw]

With that kind of attitude, I know that I'm personally not going to help. Chill out.

[ghpk]

Resellers cannot access their sub-accounts if they have ssh access only on the reseller domain.
Its the cpanel structure the access is limited, i would not criticise any host for something which is not technically possible.
On the other hand, moving from a VPS to a shared reseller account is kinda degrading your account and access permission so you should understand there would be Limitations.

you must have been able to do so on your VPS cause you are ROOT on your VPS and anything from root may have been accessible to you, but as a shared hosting customer you would be allowed ssh access of your "/home/username" so you cannot access "home/user2" via SSH of your reseller account.

Similar is the case with sftp access.

So if you need ssh access to other accounts, you would need to pay the fees for such addiontal service.

Thats all as a customer i can read/understand and explain, you can try your luck with live chat if you need official stamp on this.

[iLLuSi0nS]

yet again, another person says something different. I have tried live chat 4 times, and each time they rep says its possible, then i reply by saying are you 100% sure, they say they will check and next thing i know they are saying, "i am sorry but i was inncorrect, after speaking to a supervisor, it will not be possible to have a secure connection to your reseller accounts"

just goes to show that support here is very unknowlegable about their policies.

I dont care if you want to call it SFTP, SSH, superman, mountains, i dont care what you want to call it, all i asked for is a A SECURE WAY TO CONNECTING TO MY ACCOUNTS TO EDIT THEIR FILES.

People are taking this into directions that dont concern me, I just dont want to dial into my accounts filesystems using an UNSECURE method of just regular ftp. Reps are saying in order for you to securely connect to your reseller accounts, in order for you to no be potentially hacked, in order for you to not cause such potential risks by connecting to your accounts unsecurely, in order for you to be safe, you must pay us $10 dollars each account, but thats only if you want to log in to your file system safely and securely, but hey...who needs secure connections to your filesystem when you can broadcast your username and password via ftp in plain text for everyone to see...who needs secure connections.

Then we get people confusing the matter even more by saying

My reseller account allows me to use SFTP under all client logins. All I had to do is request SSH access via a support ticket. Was setup in less than 30 mins.

and....

And its free .

I think i have the right to be mad, cuz i havent gotten one straight answer, all i seek is the truth and all that i have gotten is people pulling me this way, and people pulling me that way. I called on the phone, i chatted live chat, i emailed sales, and this was my last cry for help on the forums. Why do i have to do so much to get a simple answer. Yet i tried 4 different methods and got the same crap, 10 different ways of asking the same question, and 10 different answers.

[jimbug]

iLLuSi0nS...

I have a VPS with someone else. I am used to having root access and can never go back to a server where I don't have it. I don't think you will ever be happy without root access either. I would never choose a regular reseller package when there are plenty of decent and inexpensive VPS's out there for about the same price and features.

Maybe you should stop complaining and go and get yourself a VPS like you are used to having.

In my opinion, HostGator has probably spent way too many man hours on a potential customer that will never be happy with the restrictions of a shared environment.

[iLLuSi0nS]

I have a VPS and have had it for the past 3 years. Im trying to come to Host Gator as a new customer, and im not complaining, just trying to get the truth about secure access.
I can care less if its root access or not, i just need a secure connection so i can edit my customers web pages as i am their web designer and cannot connect to my clients via an unsecure connection..

Jimbug your the bad guy here, first of all why are you here if you have a VPS cuz HG doesnt have VPS's, and second why are you trying to dis encourage me from buying a Host Gator package, and thirdly you have not helped this matter whatsoever and caused more harm then good, so unless you have a decent answer to help me with my concern, please keep your comments to yourself as you are only adding on to this topics madness

[jimbug]

The fact that I have a VPS with another company doesn't nullify the fact that I have access to a HG account as the "tech guy" for that account.

You say that I haven't offered any good suggestions. My suggestion that I didn't think you would be happy with a shared server, having been used to having root access for so long, is a valid suggestion. It's obviously not what you wanted to hear.

I think I'll take slapshotw's following...

With that kind of attitude, I know that I'm personally not going to help. Chill out.

slapshotw has a lot of good helpful advice. It's too bad your attitude made him refuse to help.

[ghpk]

If you have that much important stuff inside your accounts, why don't you go for a Dedicated server, and secure the entire server for your requirements, instead of running after those few dollar a month accounts.

you are criticising a host on a issue, which is not standard part of the services offered, plus your attitude towards peers here is getting ????????

Iam out of this topic now.

[striddy]

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

Jimbug your the bad guy here, first of all why are you here if you have a VPS cuz HG doesnt have VPS's, and second why are you trying to dis encourage me from buying a Host Gator package, and thirdly you have not helped this matter whatsoever and caused more harm then good, so unless you have a decent answer to help me with my concern, please keep your comments to yourself as you are only adding on to this topics madness

iLLuSi0nS, these forums are mainly made up of people giving their time in assisting their peers for FREE. We are not here to get abused, or as you told Jimbug "you are the bad guy here."

When you need help and have forum members like Jimbug and slapshotW willing and able to assist you for FREE, then you need to tone down your overly dramatized comments or nobody will give you the time of day.

I think an apology is in order here.

When asking HG support or the forum members for help, don't make such a drama out of it. Simply state your help question or objective and you will get accurate information fast.

To reiterate what I did to enable me to use SFTP to any domain under my reseller account.

1. I submitted a support ticket asking for SSH access for my MAIN reseller domain and ONLY my MAIN reseller domain. This ticket was completed in less that 30 mins. There is no cost for this at all.

Thanks HG

2. Once that ticket was completed I AM able to use e.g. FileZilla on the correct port (2222) using the SFTP protocol to login to my MAIN reseller domain OR any OTHER domain under my accounts control.

Note, we are only discussing SFTP here, not logging into other domains under your account using something like Putty over SSH. This is likely where you have been coming aggravated with support and this is something HG will charge $10 for.

Another note. You must log in with the relevant domain username / password for each domain.

[iLLuSi0nS]

I am sorry for the dramtics, I was just very irritated because of deadlines but after a bong load i realized i was a bit dramatic. Thank you very much striddy, but i wish what you are saying is true because that will convince me to get host gator as my new host, but according to a sales ticket i submited, they said i will NOT be able to access my other accounts while logging into my main account, maybe it was just miscommunication, but what you are saying is, i can use WinSCP login to my main reseller account and i will be able to access the main resellers accounts any all other domains i have created? Please say yes

Thank you and once again i apologize

[striddy]

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

they said i will NOT be able to access my other accounts while logging into my main account

Thats correct. You have a different username / password for your main account and each other cpanel account that you create.

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

maybe it was just miscommunication

I think so.

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

but what you are saying is, i can use WinSCP login to my main reseller account and i will be able to access the main resellers accounts any all other domains i have created? Please say yes

YES !!!

I can't comment on WinSCP as I don't use it (not sure if slapshotW wants to comment in this thread anymore ) but I AM able to use e.g. FileZilla on port 2222 using the SFTP protocol to login to my MAIN reseller domain using the main reseller domain username / password.

I AM also able to use FileZilla on port 2222 using the SFTP protocol to login to my OTHER hosted domains that are under my account using their respective usernames / passwords.

Hope that clears this up.

[episkey]

Just to make sure it's clear, striddy, I think you are saying that you have to login to each account separately. You cannot login to your main reseller domain and then navigate to another hosted domain from there. Is that correct?

[striddy]

Originally Posted by episkey

you have to login to each account separately. You cannot login to your main reseller domain and then navigate to another hosted domain from there.

Yes, that's spot on.

[iLLuSi0nS]

But how are you suppose to connect to the other accounts via scp if only the main account has SSH. SCP requires SSH, so every account would need a jailed ssh, correct? Striddy are you sure your connecting to your reseller accounts/domains via SCP and not regular ftp

[striddy]

Originally Posted by iLLuSi0nS

But how are you suppose to connect to the other accounts via scp if only the main account has SSH. SCP requires SSH, so every account would need a jailed ssh, correct? Striddy are you sure your connecting to your reseller accounts/domains via SCP and not regular ftp

This entire thread has been discussing SFTP. You wanted to securely upload your data to a webserver in a safe, secure, encrypted method. This is what we have been discussing and I have given you the howto on this.

Perhaps this page will prove helpful with your protocol acronyms.

http://winscp.net/eng/docs/protocols

I've even gone to the trouble of downloading WinSCP and connected to one of my customers sites using their username and password. Note, their username and password and the customers domain. Not my reseller domain and not my username and password.

First I did it via FTP. See the screenshot from the bottom right corner of the screen. Notice padlock greyed out.

ftp.jpg

Secondy I connected via SFTP. This is the link in the bottom right corner of the screen. Notice the padlock is now active.

sftp.jpg