Fetch Softworks

sftp and known_hosts file (11 posts)

• Started 17 years ago by marcobat
• Latest reply 13 years ago from Graham

• marcobat Member

  Hi,
  when attempting to connect using sftp to a host that has a wrong entry in the "~.ssh/known_hosts" file, the error message that fetch returns is a generic "error connecting ...". it would be helpful to have a more specific error (or even better to prompted about correcting the entry in the known_hosts file).
  This happens, for esample, when a domain is moved from a server to another.
  thank you.

  Posted 17 years ago #

• AdamG Member

  I am having a similar problem. My home FTPS server has a self-signed certificate, and every time I attempt to connect it forces me to clear the certificate. Is there a way to check a box that will skip this and automatically accept it?
  Thanks,
  Adam

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Originally posted by marcobat:

  Hi,
  when attempting to connect using sftp to a host that has a wrong entry in the "~.ssh/known_hosts" file, the error message that fetch returns is a generic "error connecting ...". it would be helpful to have a more specific error (or even better to prompted about correcting the entry in the known_hosts file).
  This happens, for esample, when a domain is moved from a server to another.
  thank you.

  Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we're aware that the current error message isn't very helpful, and we're thinking about ways to improve it.

  It sounds like you know that in order to fix the problem, you should remove the bad entry from known_hosts.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Originally posted by AdamG:

  I am having a similar problem. My home FTPS server has a self-signed certificate, and every time I attempt to connect it forces me to clear the certificate. Is there a way to check a box that will skip this and automatically accept it?
  Thanks,
  Adam

  Hi Adam,

  Yes, there is a way to have your self-signed certificate automatically accepted.

  In the certificate warning dialog, click the "Show Certificate" button. That will display information about the certificate, and an "Always trust these certificates" checkbox. Check that checkbox, then click the "Continue" button, and you shouldn't be bothered by the warning again for that certificate.

  If that does not fix the problem for you, please let us know.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #

• AdamG Member

  Scott,
  Thanks for the reply. That seems to have worked! Some things in the OS X world just tend to be in different places than I'm used to in the Windows world, and there's always little boxes that can be expanded somewhere.
  Cheers,
  Adam

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Originally posted by AdamG:

  Thanks for the reply. That seems to have worked! Some things in the OS X world just tend to be in different places than I'm used to in the Windows world, and there's always little boxes that can be expanded somewhere.

  Hi Adam,

  Glad to hear that worked, thanks for the follow-up. We agree that checkbox isn't in an immediately obvious place; unfortunately the certificate warning dialog is provided by Apple, and we don't have control over its location.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 17 years ago #

• Raj Member

  I am getting a unknown host exception while trying to perform SFTP through an java code. while the same is getting passed while trying manually (ensured that no problem with the code). Any suggestions? Is there any thing to do with known_hosts entry?

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Raj,

  This message board is for discussion and questions relating to Fetch, the Macintosh file transfer client. So we aren't really familiar with or able to give advice about SFTP through Java, sorry.

  It won't hurt to delete the known_hosts files (on Mac OS X, found in ~/.ssh ) and see if that helps, but if that doesn't fix your problem, you'll probably be able to get better advice by asking your question on a different forum.

  Good luck,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Graham Member

  I've just been struggling with getting an SFTP connection working. Fetch was just coming back with a connection failed type message and no other help.

  I rsorted to downloading Filezilla - and of course the connection worked straight away, so the problem was within Fetch.

  Having finally found and read this thread I edited my known hosts file and now I can connect again via Fetch. Something more useful in the Fetch UI would be really helpful here. The paid-for solution should be much more user-friendly than this (yes i will keep hold of the copy of Filezilla, so that's a minus 1 for Fetch, an application i've always rated highly).

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Graham,

  Thanks for the feedback.

  You're correct, Fetch should have a better message and behavior in this situation, and I apologize that it does not yet have that.

  We are hoping to incorporate improvements for this situation in the next version of Fetch (although we do not have a timeframe yet for when that might be released).

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 13 years ago #

• Graham Member

  Glad to hear that you are on the case. Judging by this thread the issue is at least three years old. I guess we can wait a little longer for a fix.

  Posted 13 years ago #