Secure File Sharing FAQ & Troubleshooting Tips Q: I am accessing Secure File Sharing through a firewall. What should I do? A: Provide the following firewall rules to your IT Professional. Firewall Rules (Outbound) Port 12007 Destination Protocol Destination IP TCP ftp.ctb.com* Source "All" (Any computer on the district's local network that will be used to access Secure File Sharing) * If your district firewall requires you to whitelist the IP address of ftp.ctb.com, please use: 204.8.133.195 Please note that port 443 and port 80 must also be open in your firewall to access www.ctb.com and Secure File Sharing. These are standard ports that must be open to allow access to the internet, and it is assumed that most if not all users already have these ports open. Proxies are not supported at this time. Users at your site(s) will not be able to download files from Secure File Sharing if they are connected via a proxy.
Q: My IT person opened port 12007 and I still can t access Secure File Sharing. What do I do now? A: Check to make sure Java is installed on your computer. Q: It mentions Java in the User Guide. How do I know if I have Java installed on my computer? A: You will need Java in order to run Secure File Sharing. To check to see if you have Java installed, go to (on a PC) My Computer<Control Panel<Programs. (On Mac: Open Finder>Applications>Utilities) If Java is installed, you should see it on your list of items. If you don t see Java listed, it s safe to assume you don t have it installed and you will need to follow the instructions beginning on page 3 to download it onto your computer. Q: I have an older version of Java installed. What version of Java do I need? A: Any version of Java will work. Q: I have Java installed, but it is still not working. A: Try uninstalling Java then reinstall it. Go to www.java.com for the free Java download. Q: I downloaded a PDF file to my desktop, but the icon on my desktop does not look right. A: Even if the file icon does not look as you expect, you should still be able to open the file with the appropriate program. If you downloaded a PDF, open the file with Adobe Acrobat and it should be viewable on your screen. Q: When I log into Secure File Sharing, I get a pop up message indicating that The application s digital signature has an error, and asking me if I want to run the application. What should I do?
A: CTB has issued a digital signature security certificate for Secure File Sharing to ensure you that the application does not contain any malicious code that could harm your computer. These certificates are in force for a period of time, and periodically need to be renewed by CTB. If you receive this message, this means that even though the Security Certificate has been renewed, your computer is not referencing the updated version of the digital signature. You can accept this warning then upload and download safely as usual. Q: How do I download Java? A: You should be prompted to download Java the first time you access Secure File Sharing. There are instructions for doing this in the Secure File Sharing user guide. Occasionally if you already have an older version of Java or if your settings are not configured properly, you will not be able to download files. You will get a Transferring error that looks like this: If you are not prompted to install Java when first accessing Secure File Sharing and are unable to download files, please follow the instructions below: 1. Go to www.java.com and click the Free Java Download button.
2. Click the Agree and Start Free Download Button.
3. Click Run. Windows 7 Pop Up Windows XP Pop Up 4. If asked Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer? select Yes. 5. Click Install.
6. Uncheck the box Install the Ask Toolbar and make Ask my default search provider if you do not want this toolbar to be installed on your computer. Then click Next. Once the Java installation has completed you will receive the message that you have successfully installed Java.
Q: Nothing happens when I try to download a file, but I see the Initializing SFTP message for quite some time. A: There are two possible scenarios here: 1. Java is not enabled in Firefox. If you are using Firefox you will need to verify that Java is enabled. To verify open a new web browser session in Firefox and select the Firefox button (or Tools menu in Windows XP). The Add ons Manager tab will open. In the Add ons Manager tab, select Plugins. Click Java Platform plugin to select it. Click the Enable button (if the button says Disable, Java is already enabled). 2. Your network/firewall may be blocking the connection to ftp.ctb.com. If your IT support person has verified that port 12007 is open and the IP address is set to ftp.ctb.com then advanced troubleshooting from your IT support will likely be needed. You can first verify that this is a network issue by downloading a file off of your network if you can. For example, if you are telecommuting turn off your VPN and attempt to download a file. A successful download will point to a network/firewall conflict.
Your IT support will need to try to identify what is causing the connection to ftp.ctb.com to fail. There are a number of tools that can be used by IT to assist in identifying the problem, such as Filezilla and Wireshark for example. Both are freeware utilities that are easy to install and may aid in tracking down the problem. Below is a sample output: