Secure-FTP (over SSL) is not sufficient as it only encrypts things without verifying the authenticity of the host you are connecting to.

That's actually only the case if you switch off host verification.

Normally with FTPS you would compare the certificate that the host sends you with your certificate store to either 1) verify you have that certificate already or 2) that the certificate is signed by a CA in your store and that its common name matches the domain name you are connecting to.

SFTP is nice but does not have as many features as fanilla FTP

What features are missing?

FTPS is basically the standard FTP protocol over SSL. So the same problem of a new connection being used for directory listings and file transfers still exists.

As another poster notes, the problem can be exacerbated using FTPS - firewalls can read the control channel of ordinary FTP and when PORT or PASV commands are encountered, they can automatically open the port number that is referred to. Because the command channel is encrypted in FTPS, firewalls can't do this, and FTPS transfers (and listings) are much more likely to fail than FTP transfers.

One solution is to switch back to an unencrypted control channel after authentication, although this of course complicates things for clients.

Using SFTP is the best solution - only a single port is used for both commands and for data transfers. So as long as port 22 is open, SFTP will always work.

The (slight) downside of SFTP is that it is a more complicated protocol and more difficult to implement.

Good advice. Spending 8+ hours getting paid for doing what you love will help your life to be a happy one. Doing stuff you don't like for half of your waking hours will make life a misery.

And it is hard to succeed if you don't love what you are doing.

If you love coding, stick with it - there will always be a job for you. I'm in my 40's and have been coding for many years. There's nothing like getting paid to play, and there's no end in sight yet!

Yes - and get a pedometer to measure the distance to help you get motivated to do say 10,000 steps/day.

So does anyone use MySpace any more? It seems like none of my friends do ...

Yes, me too. I simply ask "How do you spell spam?" for my question. Stopped the spambots in their tracks :)

Oh please. Galileo was under house arrest (not threatened with death), and that only because he directly insulted Pope Urban VIII (once his biggest supporter).

Insightful??? Why not just vote them out?

Moving over here to Australia will soon be almost the same thing!

It's ironic that the anti-abortion movement would rather see the eggs destroyed than used.

The anti-abortion movement would rather not have unused fertilized eggs lying around in the first place to create such ethical dilemmas.

And besides, using the fertilized eggs does destroy them.