SFTP Connections

The Files.com Agent can act as a secure SFTP proxy that routes SFTP Remote Server connections from your Files.com site to an internal, on-premise SFTP server. This capability allows Files.com to reach SFTP servers that live entirely inside private networks, without requiring those servers to be exposed to the public internet.

Prerequisites

To use Agent-routed SFTP connections, you must run a Files.com Agent on a system that can reach the internal SFTP server over the network.

The Agent host must have outbound access to the SFTP server on its configured port, typically TCP 22.

The Agent configuration must explicitly allow SFTP routing, and the internal SFTP server must accept connections from the Agent host.

Enable SFTP Routing on the Agent

Files.com enables SFTP routing through the Agent configuration file. Edit the configuration file and set the integrations value to include "sftp".

Save the change and restart the Agent so it can advertise SFTP routing support to your Files.com site.

Configuration example:

integrations = ["sftp"]

Once the Agent restarts, it becomes available for SFTP routing.

Configure an SFTP Remote Server to Use the Agent

After the Agent has been configured for SFTP routing, configure the SFTP Remote Server in Files.com.

When creating or editing the Remote Server, enter the internal hostname or IP address of the SFTP server. Enable Agent routing and select the Agent that runs inside the same private network as the SFTP server.

From that point forward, Files.com routes all SFTP traffic for this Remote Server through the selected Agent.

Transfer Performance Boost

Agent-routed connections significantly improve transfer speed compared to direct legacy protocol based access. SFTP is a chatty, latency-sensitive protocol that performs poorly over long-distance or high-latency networks. By contrast, the Files.com Agent communicates with Files.com using an optimized transfer mechanism designed for high throughput and resilience.

Files.com transfers data quickly to the Agent, often at speeds far exceeding what SFTP can sustain over the public internet. The Agent then performs the SFTP transfer locally within your private network, where latency is low and bandwidth is abundant. This separation removes SFTP’s performance bottlenecks from the long-haul portion of the transfer.