I'm moving my backups to a storage box in Hetzner and they offer access via several protocols that Syncovery supports:
- FTP/FTPS
- SFTP
- Rsync over SSH
- WebDAV
I know Rsync over SSH has some limitations, and I don't think I'd want to use plain FTP, but what about the other options? Are there any Syncovery features that are unavailable when using certain protocols? Are there any significant differences in performance when using any over the others? Which would you recommend using given the choice?
Thanks in advance!
What is the best protocol to use?
Re: What is the best protocol to use?
Hello,
thanks for your enquiry!
Personally I like SFTP (which is based on SSH) very much. It is the only one of these protocols where Block Level Copying is supported. However, is doesn't have automatic server certificate verification like FTPS and WebDAV have. Instead, Syncovery will show you the SFTP server fingerprint, which you would need to verify for correctness. Unfortunately most people, including myself, do not always verify the fingerprints and could therefore theoretically be subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.
If you compress and/or encrypt your backups, then the Block Level Copying feature of SFTP becomes irrelevant, because compressed files cannot be updated on a block level basis directly. Instead, changed blocks need to be uploaded in separate incremental backup files. In Syncovery, we call this feature "Synthetic Backup".
To be as safe against man-in-the-middle attacks as possible, it might be better to use FTPS or WebDAV. Both use TLS encryption and they verify that the TLS certificate is valid, in the same way a web browser verifies secure connections.
FTPS is generally more powerful than WebDAV. For example, Syncovery can resume broken uploads via FTPS, and it can get a recursive folder listing from the FTPS server.
So, even though I end up using SFTP myself in most cases, the safer choice seems to be FTPS with no significant disadvantages.
thanks for your enquiry!
Personally I like SFTP (which is based on SSH) very much. It is the only one of these protocols where Block Level Copying is supported. However, is doesn't have automatic server certificate verification like FTPS and WebDAV have. Instead, Syncovery will show you the SFTP server fingerprint, which you would need to verify for correctness. Unfortunately most people, including myself, do not always verify the fingerprints and could therefore theoretically be subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.
If you compress and/or encrypt your backups, then the Block Level Copying feature of SFTP becomes irrelevant, because compressed files cannot be updated on a block level basis directly. Instead, changed blocks need to be uploaded in separate incremental backup files. In Syncovery, we call this feature "Synthetic Backup".
To be as safe against man-in-the-middle attacks as possible, it might be better to use FTPS or WebDAV. Both use TLS encryption and they verify that the TLS certificate is valid, in the same way a web browser verifies secure connections.
FTPS is generally more powerful than WebDAV. For example, Syncovery can resume broken uploads via FTPS, and it can get a recursive folder listing from the FTPS server.
So, even though I end up using SFTP myself in most cases, the safer choice seems to be FTPS with no significant disadvantages.
Re: What is the best protocol to use?
Thanks very much for the detailed reply! In every day life I also use SFTP quite frequently (and often don't very the SSH key fingerprints either 
although I do notice when they change and I need to reverify), but don't often see FTPS used anywhere so I'm not as familiar with it. It seems like it may be a good option in this case. Thanks again!
although I do notice when they change and I need to reverify), but don't often see FTPS used anywhere so I'm not as familiar with it. It seems like it may be a good option in this case. Thanks again!