FTP server, Mac OS High Sierra

I read somewhere else that both telnet and ftp were removed from high sierra.

One suggestion, if you still have the old sierra around, you can use the binaries from it. Probably use /usr/local/bin rather than screwing with the SIP stuff to stick them where they belong.

I haven't tried it myself but it's supposed to work fine.

Hello RayKep,

Apple removed ftp due to security issues. FTP is unsafe at any speed. Do you have an absolute requirement to use FTP? Could you use SFTP instead? Just turn on "remote login" and you should be able to use SFTP.

Yes, FTP is insecure, but most people using it for larger file transfers within their network, where SFTP is not needed. Now, I need to find an SFTP/SCP server for my transfers that were perfectly fine in FTP before.. 😟

Like someone already said, it would have been nice to know, since these built-in features made the Mac that much nicer to use than PC.

Hacksawz88 wrote:

I need to find an SFTP/SCP server for my transfers that were perfectly fine in FTP before.. 😟

It is built into the operating system. Just turn on remote login. Technically, you don't need SFTP locally, but it isn't any slower than FTP, especially locally.

Apple is well-known for breaking compatibility with older technologies. Microsoft, however, is well-known for maintaining compatibility with older versions. Yet Apple customers always keep updating to whatever Apple's latest buggy OS might be, regardless of what won't work anymore, and then complain about it. Windows users are notorious for running ancient versions. I wonder, do Windows users complain that Microsoft never gives them any new features in XP?

I'm a faithful follower and purchaser (donator?) to Etrecheck. I highly respect it's author. But let me comment on the above. I've very long history with MSFT, having "coded" in Microsoft Basic on my TRS-80 model 1. Converted to the PC in 1981 when my company declned to support Apple II or TRS-80. The Config.sys allowed anybody to make hardware for the PC and its clones. It left 5 designed holes in the OS that still are the main avenue for the hacker, malware and viruses. It did make it possible for MSFT to rule the world as Steve Jobs took the opposite road. Backward compatibility is one of the reasons that the PC remains dangerous to this day. To top it all off, it was a standard joke among us geeks that Microsoft sold us betaware and then sold us the next version to fix the bugs we bought in the last iteration. DOS 1.3 worked. 1.0 was too buggy. No DOS version 2.* was sold to anybody who knew better just the same as any 4.* DOS. It took until Window 3.1 before things got stable enough to use. I forgot that knowledge and took a "free upgrade" to Win10 for a Parallels virtual machine and it had so many problems that I had to abandon it and buy $200 replacement. I think my experience with Apple makes me appreciate 99% of how they do things, especially with respect to AppleCare. Apple fixes their mistakes and doesn't put a new number and price tag on it.

Any updates on this? My copiers all report to the server through FTP for sending scans and it was very convenient. I'm not sure what to do now since we had bugs with the SMB connecting from the copier to Server.

Brian Williams2 wrote:

And this response was helpful HOW???

I'm just trying to engage people with replies that they enjoy and find meaningful. I keep suggesting better and more secure alternatives, but that doesn't help. I keep pointing out that any vendor still forcing FTP or telnet on its users is being harmful or even malicious. When all else fails, I point to any one of 10,000 3rd party FTP and telnet implementations. But it is never enough. Apple announces a new update and everyone loses their minds. They forget what every single Apple update in the past 5 years was like and click "update now". Then begins the wailing and gnashing of teeth when Apple attempts to drag them into 1999.

Hi there,

I am hanging on this problem, too.

If you are familiar with Python, there is a solution.

The pyftpdlib (1.5.2 actualy) is able to build a FTP-Server.

After setup and modifing the scripts you will be able to send scans via FTP to your Mac.

Yes, the /usr/bin/ftp and telnet images work just fine when copied to /usr/local/bin.

I cannot believe Momma Apple, citing "Security Issues", would remove two of the most basic tools from the Internet Suite, used by literally tens of thousands of CORPORATE applications. By bringing over the 12.x utilities, we now are dependent on images which will no longer have support, ie, will no longer receive security updates the rest of the internet gets. This is better HOW???

(40+ year veteran of supporting commercial legacy systems as a consultant for a major computer manufacturer)

Hi epompei,

If Apple left the worrying up to individual users, then our lives would be a lot easier. I cannot understand why we have to live with the executive decisions made in an Apple Boardroom that have no relevance to individual users decisions. For instance, I realise that FTP may be not as secure as possible but really, I am only using it to move a scanned document from my printer to my file server. It's all internal and so security doesn't have any relevance here.

Please bring back FTP and those old fashioned protocols that actually worked and let me get on with my work.

Such a stupid decision to remove FTP! Us macOSServer 5.4 and have no FTP!

We have to scan to server that needs FTP! What a mess... now we have to use email. and go over the WAN, instate stay on the LAN side! Such stuff has to be communicate in the top of the installation, update process.

All i could see is:

"New technologies at the heart of the system make your Mac more reliable, capable, and responsive — and lay the foundation for future innovations. macOS High Sierra also refines the features and apps you use every day. It’s macOS at its highest level yet."

Dear Marcel,

I posted an answer to this earlier. I found an inexpensive FTP server for my Mac Server and installed it and got it up and running in half an hour. I can continue to use my scanner to send scanned documents over my internal network just like I did before the High Sierra "downgrade".

Look here. https://langui.net/ftp-server/ for the product FTP Server. Do not go for the SFTP Server alternative, it looks too complicated and your printer will not be able to send to it. It cost me about $5.00 Aus to get this app. Worth the effort.

Let's keep at Apple to ask them to restore FTP within their file server software as a basic requirement. There may be some theoretical risks if you were using it from the outside world and it being able to be hacked, but for working inside a LAN, where is the problem?

Cheers.

Hi Peter,

We don't want to install services that we have to maintain separately and may be a security issue.

We have moved to use scan to mail using SSL. We can't scan if the internet is down...

In my experience it's a illusion to believe large companies will make changes because of some users.

Using Mac since 1991 "highest level yet"... 😮 😉