We have recently implemented an FTP locking system to improve security for all of our customers. This has been implemented following close work with customer focus groups. The lock is designed primarily to counter the recent advance of viruses which steal passwords stored within FTP clients. A good example of this is the Gumblar virus, more information is available here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumblar

By default, FTP is not accessible by the outside world. There are two options available for you to enable FTP, they are as follows:

1) From the Online Control Panel control panel, you can choose to enable global FTP access for a set duration, from 1 hour up to a maximum of 28 days. We would advise that you prepare any changes to your website and then, when you are ready to upload it, unlock FTP for the duration required.

2) From the Online Control Panel control panel, you can set a trusted IP address to have permanent access to FTP, this way periodic unlocking is unnecessary . You can assign multiple IPs by separating them with a comma. We attempt to determine your IP address automatically, this will populate the IP address field by default.

If this option is not available from your control panel, you should contact support, they will be able to unlock your FTP account for you.

We take customer security very seriously here at Insight Hosting, we hope you feel, as we do, that the improved security for every customer on our network is worth the extra step required.