FTP - Windows
NRAO Employees: Network access is for use on NRAO-approved machines only. Complete the Permission to Connect non-NRAO Computer to NRAO Network form (PDF) and have it authorized by your local computing division head before attempting any connections except "nraoPUBLIC". Please note that VPN is the preferred remote connection technology.
Visitors: May make use of NRAO public wireless networks where available. For RFI restricted areas, contact the Help Desk.
NRAO FTP and SFTP Services
The NRAO provides two ftp services: anonymous and secure.
FTP: Anonymous ftp is used mostly by non-NRAO staff to either retrieve files or upload files into the incoming directory. You can only connect to the anonymous ftp site as the user ftp or anonymous and therefore only have limited read-only access to the NRAO system. Customarily the login userid is "anonymous" and the password is the user's email address.
Secure FTP (SFTP): Secure ftp is used by NRAO staff to either upload file to or download files from NRAO systems. You need a NRAO Unix account to do this. The advantage of secure ftp is that you login as your normal user account, and therefore have access to all the files and folders in your home directory, as well as other file systems and shares visible via NFS.
While Windows users can use command line FTP commands (see FTP - Linux/Mac) via the cmd prompt, we recommend you use Filezilla, which is an easy to use graphical user interface to FTP. Please contact your helpdesk if you would like Filezilla installed on your Windows computer.
Below is a table of the available NRAO FTP or SFTP servers:
Note: Anonymous ftp is used mostly by non-NRAO staff to either retrieve files or upload files into the incoming directory. You can only connect to the anonymous ftp site as the user "anonymous" and therefore only have limited read-only access to the NRAO system. If you are connecting to the FTP server anonymously, use "anonymous" for the "username" and use your email address for "Password".
| Location | FTP Server | SFTP Server |
|---|---|---|
| AOC | ftp.aoc.nrao.edu | sftp.aoc.nrao.edu |
| CV | ftp.cv.nrao.edu | sftp.cv.nrao.edu |
| GB | ftp.gb.nrao.edu | sftp.gb.nrao.edu |
FileZilla Windows FTP and SFTP Guide
FileZilla is an easy to use Windows FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) Client program and can be used to transfer files to and from both NRAO-hosted (see table above) and non-NRAO FTP/SFTP servers.
To start FileZilla: From the Windows Start menu -> "All Programs" -> "FileZilla FTP Client" -> "FileZilla".
To connect to an FTP server, type in the name of the FTP server in the "Host" box in the upper left. Enter anonymous for the "Username:" and your email address for the "Password:", and click the Quickconnect button:
If you need to connect to a Secure FTP Server, you must use the following syntax in the "Host" box: "sftp://SFTP Server" For example: "sftp://sftp.aoc.nrao.edu". Enter your account credentials (you cannot use anonymous):
To connect, click the "Quickconnect" button.
To download a file from an FTP server, navigate to where you want the file to be downloaded to within the "Local site:" file tree. In this example, we will navigate to C:\temp within "Local site". On the "Remote site:" side click on the files or folders to be downloaded, then just drag to the other side.
In this example we transferred a copy of the file called "README" from the remote site to our local hard drive on our computer into C:\temp.
TO upload a file, navigate to the location of the file within the "Local site:" file tree. By clicking on the folder, the files and folders within the tree will be listed under the "Local site:" tree. Click on the files or folders to be uploaded, then just drag to "Remote site:" side on the right.
Additional FileZilla Resources
More documentation is available for FileZilla at the FileZilla Home Page:
