Pardon me for opening a new topic, but I could not find anything in the forums regarding using SSL/TLS (TLS v1.2).

New company policy states that all file transfers must be encrypted. We currently use clear-text FTP with UltraEdit and UltraCompare. I am using a Unisys OS 2200 host. Unisys does not support SSH (and therefore does not support SFTP). In order to connect directly to the server with encryption, the only way to do this is to use SSL/TLS (FTPS). I need some instruction in setting up UltraEdit (and UltraCompare) for FTPS on my PC. We are successfully using FTPS between our Unisys mainframe and windows servers running "EFT Server Enterprise 7.3.0.3".

We are running 64-bit UltraEdit 23.20.0.43. And 64-bit UltraCompare 16.00.0.44. We are using Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 64-bit Image 1.0.0.

From what I've learned setting up FTPS on the mainframe I have the following questions regarding using FTPS with UltraEdit.

• Which version of TLS does it support? TLS v1.2, TLS v1.1,  or TLS v1.0?
• Does UltraEdit support SHA256?
• What directories should I put the certificates and key in? I have a private key, and a signed certificate. I have the trusted certificates that were used to sign the signed certificate. Where do these go?
• Is there any way of caching the private key's pass phrase so that it doesn't have to be entered every time FTPS is used?

Thank you.
David Traxler

UltraEdit for Windows v23.20.0.43 and UltraCompare for Windows v16.00.0.44 are installed both with wodFtpDLX v3.5.3.732 which was the latest version of wodFtpDLX on release of these versions of UE and UC.

This library supports TLS v1.0 to v1.2 and lots of SHA256 algorithms, most likely all algorithms defined up to end of 2015.

After opening FTP Account Manager and having on tab General selected the suitable FTPS protocol, the items on tab SSH/SLL became active. There it is the option Private key/SSL certificate path with button ... to browse to the key or certificate file. So the certificate file can be stored wherever wanted.

I have no experience with FTPS, but according to help page for FTP Account Manager it should work to enable check box option Key requires Password and enter on tab General below Password the passphrase and enable Save password.

Hi Mark,

I want to mention first that FTPS (File Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)) and SFTP (Secure Shell (SSH) File Transfer Protocol) have nothing in common other than files can be transferred between two devices with encryption using these two protocols. The protocols are completely different.

A private/public key based authentication with certificate files is supported since years by UltraEdit for Windows as it can be seen below:

SSH/SSL tab in FTP Account Manager windows of UltraEdit for Windows v2023.2.0.33

Well, the TLS (Transport Layer Security) and encryption standards changes all the time as also the format of the files storing certificates and keys. A user of a several years old version of UltraEdit cannot expect for that reason that a connection to an up-to-date FTPS/SFTP server will always work if the server dropped the support for older TLS versions for security reasons. An older version of UltraEdit might also not support the latest certificate file formats.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum. Feature requests must be sent by email to UltraEdit support which can help also on how to configure an SFTP account using certificates for authentication if that is supported by UltraEdit for Mac somehow. See the technical support page for more details on how to contact UltraEdit’s technical support.