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If SFTP is already secured with SSH-2 without tunneling enabled, then what additional security benefit does tunneling give for SFTP purposes? Tunneling seems to be useful only as a proxy for SFTP purposes, and my home network has no access restrictions put on it by the host provider holding the files.
Does this mean that I only need tunneling in a public network that could be restricted from accessing the website files held by the host provider? Or is tunneling beneficial even in an unrestricted home network - or does it just create unnecessary overhead?
Please provide a sample of how you would tunnel. When replacing addresses or host names, please replace all occurrences with the same value, otherwise it's pointless. – Daniel B – 2014-09-03T23:22:45.100
I don't understand what you are saying. In this case, I would be using WinSCP, a popular program that can use the SFTP protocol to access / manage remote files held by my Bluehost website hosting account. I am confused as to whether tunneling has SFTP benefits beyond that of acting as a proxy from a restricted network. And I need to know if using tunneling will add unnecessary overhead (such as when backing up files) if all I'm doing is managing my website files remotely from an unrestricted home network. – Trekker – 2014-09-04T00:26:22.420
1Actually, it’s completely useless for restricted networks. If you can’t SFTP, you can’t SSH. It may, however, be necessary, if the server you’re trying to reach is on an internal network where another server acts as a gateway. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Bluehost, though. – Daniel B – 2014-09-04T05:27:32.810
@DanielB When you say "it", are you referring to tunneling? Can you describe why restricted networks would prevent SFTP? – Trekker – 2014-09-06T20:38:24.780
Yes, I’m referring to tunneling. Dunno. Because overzealous admins block everything but port 80? Point being: If SSH connections work, so does SFTP. – Daniel B – 2014-09-06T20:57:53.223