At Microcozm, LLC, we recognize the emphasis that must be placed on keeping your data private and secure. For all of
the reasons we can think of and many that we can't, we do not offer file uploads and downloads directly from our website.
What follows here is a set of instructions that you can follow to share your data with us in a secure manner. File transfers
will be allowed by trusted, known users using SFTP with
public-key cryptography. You can follow those links for very technical
descriptions of the technologies.
Instructions
These instructions assume that you are using Windows, as most of our QuickBooks customers are. If you are using Linux or
MacOS, the steps are the same but the tools are different. Contact us for additional instructions.
- First, you will need a few tools. Windows does not support SFTP without a little help. We use the excellent tools
from WinSCP. They, in turn, use PuTTY
for key generation and management.
- This step only needs to be done one time!
Double-click the WinSCP installer that you downloaded in the first
step. I always just click the defaults and let it install. You can customize anything you like; I prefer the Explorer-style
interface. You can change it later if you like.
- This step only needs to be done one time!
Generate a public/private key pair using
PuTTYgen. The private key must be kept by you and kept secure. You can think of the private
key as a key that will open any lock that is secured with your public key. Once you have
generated your keys, there is no need to do so again unless your private key is lost or you
think it has been compromised.
- Open PuTTYgen from the WinSCP3 -> Key tools Start menu.
- Click on the "Generate" button. The screen will tell you to "generate some randomness". Just move your mouse as it says until
enough randomness has been generated. A public/private key pair will be generated.
- Enter a "Key comment" if you like. This can be anything to identify your key.
- Enter a "Key passphrase" if you like. This is like a password for the private key. While not strictly necessary,
it is a good idea to protect your key with a passphrase.
- Click "Save private key". A dialog will open asking you where you want to save it. I put mine in "My Documents\myname.ppk"
- Click "Save public key". You will need this later to send to us. I put mine in "My Documents\myname.pubkey.txt"
- Send us an email with your public key as an attachment. We'll send you your username.
- Start WinSCP to login to our secure server to transfer files.
- Open WinSCP from the WinSCP3 Start menu.
- For "Host name" enter www.microcozm.net
- For "User name" enter your username
- Leave "Password" blank, your private key serves this purpose.
- For "Private key file" click the "..." box and choose your private key from the previous step.
- For "Protocol", use the default of "SFTP (allow SCP fallback)"
- Save this session for later use.
- Click "Login"
- The first time you connect, a Warning box will ask you if you wish to add the host key to the cache. Our host key is
ssh-rsa 2048 64:73:64:5e:c4:4d:5c:ac:a6:85:cc:e2:dd:a0:d3:16
go ahead and add it to your cache (click Yes).
- Once connected, you can transfer files into and out of our server at your convenience.