Web Source dialog box

The Web Source dialog box enables you to select a file or a directory from a remote server.
It contains 2 tabs:

the first one to set the path to the desired item,
the second one to specify options you could not set when typing the URL in the source combo box.

Basic tab

Protocol

Choose the protocol to use to access the remote files. For the moment, Ellié Computing Merge supports FTP, secured FTP (via SSL) and SFTP (Secure Shell FTP). It can also get files over HTTP and HTTPS (but cannot list directories).

Host Name/Address

Server domain or IP address of the remote server. More details about the host syntax in an URL.

Port

Select the port number to use on the remote server. If left empty, the port number will be set to the default port value for the selected protocol.

Anonymous

If chosen, the connection to the remote server will be anonymous (e.g. it will use the 'anonymous' login). Nevertheless, if a password is required, the email address specified in the Application FTP Options. (FTP/HTTP only)

Password choice

If chosen, the connection is authenticated using login/password.

Private key file choice (SFTP only)

If chosen, you must enter the path to a private key file (RSA or DSA) which is used to authenticate with the remote server. The private key is never sent to the remote end. It is used locally with the Passphrase.

Passphrase

This passphrase is used to read in memory the private key file. It is never saved and you will have to enter it again (once per session).

Show passphrase

If checked, the passphrase is shown. Note that a passphrase entered previously is never shown again, clicking this shows only what was entered since the current dialog was last displayed.

Use agent (SFTP only)

If chosen, ssh-agent (on Unix/Mac OS X) or pageant (on Windows) is called by ECMerge to request authentication information. This is more practical than entering private key information and better than password as ECMerge do not have to save any password in this case.

Save password

If checked, this option will make the password saved in the Ellié Computing Status/Template file. Thus, you will not be prompted again when reopening the document from the template or status file. The password will be encrypted using the Blowfish algorithm.

Username/Password

Account info to use to access the remote server

Advanced tab

Use N parrallel connections

Ellié Computing Merge can handle concurrent connexions towards a given server. It enables parrallel transfers of files (downloads and uploads).

Passive mode

If there is a firewall between your computer and the server's network, you will probably want to check this.

Try recursive listing

If the server supports recursive listing, use this option so as to receive all the folder structure at once. This improves the software performance when you want to operate on full tree structure, overall with slow FTP servers and many sub-folders. Folders view opened in non-recursive mode ignore this flag and list non-recursively.

Do not use proxy

Prevent the use of the proxy. This is useful when connecting to a server of your local network whereas connecting to Internet would need a proxy. You can also use the Do not use proxy for server matching these patterns in Firewall / Proxy options.

Prevent PASV command overlap

When checked, this option forces the synchronization of the multiple parallel connections so that at a given time no more than 1 PASV command is active. It seems that some FTP server versions (Microsoft IIS) is not multi-connection safe and replies several times with the same port (actually mixing the data connections).
This option slows down connections speed, disable it for better performance.

Upgrate to SSL with AUTH command

Use this when connecting to an FTP server supporting explicit SSL to activate SSL encryption. This option differs from ftps:// URLs because such URLs expect implicit SSL (i.e. no command to tell that SSL is activated). Implicit SSL is somewhat deprecated in particular because some servers do not expect data connection to be encrypted using implicit SSL (in contrary to Ellié Computing Merge).
For example, use this option to connect to FileZilla Server when you want SSL.

Verify peer certificate authenticity (SSL)

Uncheck this option if you know that the target server has transient certification problems or is a test server from your own, for which you issued a certificate by yourself (without register it through a well known Certificate Authority).
When this option is unchecked, SSL does not ensure you that you really connect to the server that you expect.

Alternatively, you can add the public certificate of the target server in the "ca-bundle.crt" file in Ellié Computing Merge directory. This is much more secure.
If the site to which you connect is public site and you think the certificate should be included with Ellié Computing Merge, you can first find the ca-bundle.crt file on the Mozilla Firebird distribution. Please also tell us so that we update the file in the installer.

Verify host (SSL)

Sometimes a valid certificate is returned but for another host, check this if you know that your target server has this problem.

Verify server public key MD5 checksum (SSH / SFTP)

If checked and filled, ECMerge will refuse to connect to the server if the server's public key MD5 checksum does not match this value, it is a simple protection against a server faking the real server (a fake server even if advertising the real public key won't be able to decrypt the symetric key computed on the fly by the client as it won't have the real private key).

Press F1 or click on the Help button while in this dialog box will show this topic.

See also