Need a FTP solution for Web Development company

Montye

Montye

New member
Nov 16, 2009
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Hey guys,

Ok so I'm stuck with a problem and need a solution. As a web developer - I hire contract coders/designers to work on projects from all over the world. Throughout the interview process, rapport is built and in this business, we have no choice but to trust each other.

In the case that a contract programmer decides to leave and is leaving on bad terms- he/she in turn will have access to numerous FTP logins of clients.

I am looking for a solution to this. This has not happend yet, but I would like to take a preventative approach. I am looking for something that is a firefox add-on ideally. If it is not available, can anyone build it? how should it be built/ structured?

Any advice will be great!
 


Give each contractor a unique ftp login and terminate as necessary? That's what I'd do. Not at all what you asked for, but in case you don't find what you're actually looking for..
 
What about setting up test/preview sites where your remote designers are allowed to upload, and then only you, or someone trusted, move the content to the client's FTP?

So you'd have your designer/developer upload everything to test.realdomain.com, when the work is complete you move it to the final location.

Sure it's a bit of overhead, but this way you never give untrusted people access to your client's data ( they could store other stuff in their space if they have FTP credentials )
 
Ok let me clarify..

I recently began to hire independent contractors from resources like oDesk and Elance. I have built a great team, and am very happy with their performance, however I also have to keep mind the possibility that any one of them can decide that they are unhappy with my company.

In this case, I am concerned that ( out of spite ) there is a chance they could decide to destroy any of my client websites. For this reason, I always have the contractor do the developing on my servers then I personally move the files to my client server once the project is complete.

The problem with this, is that my client base keeps growing, which is making it increasingly more difficult to keep up with my workload plus move files server-to-server on work done by contractors.

I would like to begin allowing my guys to have access to my clients servers, while at the same time protect my client and my company in the case there is a problem with the contractor.

*******
My Question:
Is there a solution that provides a browser ftp client, that will allow me to securely store my clients ftp credentials then provide my contractors / employees login access to that environment. From here, they would be able to login --> select a client --> then ftp into the server.

In the case something went wrong and the contractor no longer was with my company, I could then terminate their account with the system as opposed to having to change 50 ftp accounts.

Additional Details

1) My client base is constantly growing. I also offer site support for clients that did not hire my company to develop their original project.

Because of this, I have a large number of ftp accounts inside my CRM. At any given time, one of my contractors will need to access these ftp credentials, to make changes.

I would like to have an environment where ( instead of having access to the actual ftp credentials ) the contractor / employee could login to the central environment then ftp into the client they select ( using a browser ftp ).

2) I understand that no solution will be 100% secure. However, I would like to have a little more protection than just giving any new contractor / employee I may hire, the logins for each and every client project they work on.

If the above does not exist, I would really appreciate any advice for handling this situation.

Thanks,
 
You're still not being clear.

Are the clients' websites hosted on your own dedicated/VPS server, or do the clients give you their own godaddy or cpanel login details so you can transfer the dev site to live?
 
So from what I understand - you're looking for a centralized Control Panel from wherein you can allot temporary access to your clients' FTP accounts to the concerned programmer and simply disable that access once the work is complete?

I am not sure if something has already been coded which exactly suits your requirement - but as previously suggested. You have 2 plausible options. Either go for Subversions - Tortoise SVN rocks! Now instead of using Firefox - you'll have to make use of Microsoft Excel to keep track of all the gateway accounts you create using SVNs and easily keep track of enabling and disabling them.

Or as someone suggested have the development work done in a singular restricted environment and have it moved to the main site personally or hire someone trusted in real life to do it for you for a salary!

I have over 200 web development clients with 6 in-house developers working for me. However, I keep hiring external freelancers from time to time depending on the skill-set required for the job. I use the latter option and have never faced problems.

May I ask your customer strength? Considering you're facing problems with the growing number of customers?
 
You don't want to do what you are asking for. You don't want to start giving access to your client servers to people all over the world that you have never met and who's trust you question. As your client how would they feel about.

In the big boy source control work you limit who has access to production to a small group of people. Development and production access have two different purposes and should be kept separate. It is not what you are asking for by me and a couple of other people on here are trying to get you into the right mindset.

Look at finding another person or two who you can trust 100% stateside and hire them just for code migrations. They don't do any dev work, and you keep them long term for every project. They should be low cost because you don't need them anywhere near the hours you need the regular developers. They get access to all dev and live environments.
 
If you are being overloaded with workload why not just hire someone you know personally and can trust to do all of the moving for you. If you are too busy with your own projects to move the files from one server to your clients simply find someone that can. Surely you have a brother or partner etc that you know well enough that you don't have to worry about them screwing you over.

This way you don't have to waste your own time doing it nor do you have to give your clients info to workers that you are not able to trust fully.

Otherwise you will need to continue doing it yourself or create individual ftp accounts on your clients sites for the workers which is terminated once the job is complete.

It's really common sense.
 
This one is easy. if you have a static ip for your office internet connection setup a instance of Filezilla on a machine, setup a separate folder for each user, setup a separate user for each user and if one decides to be vindictive or you need to get rid of them kill their ftp account. In relation to data retention just write a script to clear that folder each day after they have uploaded some files.

It is a little bit of rooting around but it will work well.
 
You act like moving a site from a staging server to the production server is this big complicated deal. Use a version control system on a development server and export (copy everything except the version control specific files)to the staging server. Make your staging server a mirror to the production site. All movement goes one way and can be scripted to be done at the push of a button.

Never ever give anyone direct access to the production site unless the client requests it. And I'm sure you know this, but keep detailed logs of any changes made to sites on the staging server. If you are not aware of every thing that happens there, you're doing it wrong.
 
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