WinSCP can be used for live editing, uploading and downloading files using an encrypted SSH/SFTP connection. SFTP is part of OpenSSH and easy to setup. Don't use FTP or SCP – both is either insecure or outdated.
You can download WinSCP here.
Before you can work with WinSCP, there are many important settings you need to change.
After installation, choose Options > Preferences and make sure, that you use English as language and restart WinSCP:
Now, make sure all of these settings are applied:
Add an editor, usually Notepad++ (can be downloaded here):
- Choose SFTP.
- Enter the servers hostname or IP address.
- Default port number is both 22 for SSH or SFTP.
- Enter your username.
- Don't enter any password, leave it empty.
- Finally click Advanced...
Now, make sure the setting Sending of null SSH packets is enabled:
Set your private key which is used instead of a password for authentication:
You can now finally save your session and will be never asked again for any credentials:
In case you don't have root access, you might get the error Upload of file [...] was successful, but error occurred while setting the permissions and/or timestamp. In that case, you need to disable the option Preserve timestamp:
