Configuring an SSH tunnel with FileZilla

Is there any way to configure FileZilla on Microsoft Windows so that it connects to an SFTP server through some SSH tunnel?

E.g., with WinSCP, I can do the following:

I don't want to have to launch the SSH tunnel another program such as PuTTY or running e.g. ssh -D 443 -v -N -L 443:my_server.org:22 franck50@my_server.org then

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4 Answers

No, FileZilla does not have the "Tunnel" feature of WinSCP.

But you can use an external tunnel: How to use FileZilla to connect with indirect remote server?

As Martin Prikryl, FileZilla doesn't support tunneling using a proxy server.

A feature request on this topic got closed: #4806 closed Feature request (rejected) - Add FTP over SSH (tunneling using a proxy server)

How to create a SSH tunnel to encrypt a plain (insecure) ftp connection using FileZilla client & PuTTY

Summary:

1. Filezilla FTP Client/Your local PC <~~ [Conn. 1] ~~> SSH server <~~ [Conn. 2] ~~> FTP server
   Connection 1 is encrypted using the SSH protocol.
   Caution: Connection 2 is not encrypted.
2. Configure FileZilla to use your local PC as a (generic proxy) SOCKS 5 server.
3. Configure PuTTY to create a SSH tunnel between your local PC and a SSH server using DYNAMIC port forwarding. In this mode, PuTTY acts as a proxy server.

The SSH server is a remote host that runs a SSH service (typically a Linux/Unix/BSD host). You must have an account to login to this host.

Configuration Procedure:

1. PuTTY configuration (for release 0.67 or similar):

   • Select "Category/Session"
     Host Name: SSH Server IP number or name
     Port: SSH server port number (22 by default)
     Connection type: SSH

   • Select "Category/Connection/SSH/Tunnels"
     Source Port: XXXX (5000 for instance, or any other unused high number)
     Destination: (leave it empty)
     Dynamic, Auto

2. FileZilla configuration (for version 3.46.3 or similar):

   • Select "Edit/Settings/Connection/Generic proxy"
     Type of generic proxy: SOCKS 5
     Proxy host: localhost
     Proxy port: XXXX (the SSH tunnel source port number, see PuTTY configuration above)

3. First execute PuTTY to create the desired SSH tunnel (you will be asked to provide username/password to login to the SSH server). Then execute Filezilla client using:

   • Protocol: FTP - File Transfer Protocol
     Host: FTP server IP number or name
     Port: (leave it empty, 21 by default)
     Encryption: Only use plain FTP (insecure)

Possible uses: your PC is on your home network, the SSH and FTP servers are behind your company's router/firewall, and:

1. you cannot access the ftp server directly (external connections to the ftp server are blocked for security reasons), or
2. you can access the ftp server directly but you don't want to send your data (username/password/files) without encryption over the internet.

See also:

To save/load PuTTY configurations see:

in short when using jumpserver

setup a local SOCKS 5 connection to the jumpserver using

ssh -D <availableport> -q -C -N user@jumpserver 

then use the that in your filezilla settings

FileZilla_settings

compliments to: reference-blog