For #2, I found this hint which says you have to hack the login user's ssh shell to use the sftp server so even if they come in that way they get the same service.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20020913055647558

For #1, I would think that the logged in user's access is restricted through judicious use of permissions.

I had attempted to set up regular ftp to a mac behind a firewall some time ago and never could get it to work right. The ssh stuff seems to work without a hitch, as far as firewalls and connections go. I just portmap 22 on my public ip side to 22 on the mac behind the firewall. Of course, since it was just for me, I never played with all the shell login hackery. I imagine you would hit bandwidth constraints before any kind of sftp server performance issues would arise.

CB

On 1/5/14 1:05 PM, Paul Erkens wrote:
Hi Chris B,

I've been investigating sftp a while ago, but I gave up because I did not find 
it to work properly for me. In my case, any user was able to do a cd .. and get 
into folders all over my system. Is the sftp daemon in osx to be taken 
seriously? Can I use it to do a functional server for some 75 or more users 
that I once had on my old ftp server? These were my issues with it:

1. Users can get to all of the files on the serving mac, because I didn't find 
a way to lock them into their, or just a, specific home directory. You don't 
want everybody who wants radio plays from you, to download all private folders. 
Can I prevent that?

2. That port 22 thing is still a mystery to me. Can I open port 22, so that a 
user can get into my sftp server, but cannot log in using ssh and mess with my 
system? I don't get that yet.

Regards,
Paul.
On Jan 3, 2014, at 5:36 PM, Chris Blouch <cblo...@aol.com> wrote:

Depends on which vintage of OSX you are running. FTP was dropped from the 
sharing control panel a while ago but some variant of

sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

will get it going again. The port issue will still exist along with security 
problems with FTP in general. It's been a while since I checked into this but 
in addition to opening port 21, once the connection is established the FTP 
server will do all future connections through one or more other ports chosen 
from a pool of available ports, usually ports 1024-5000. So you have to have in 
and out traffic allowed on all those ports in your firewall, which is why 
security people frown on FTP. sftp only needs port 22, which is the same port 
as ssh. Also ftp sends all text in the clear such as usernames and passwords 
while sftp encrypts everything. Just some stuff to google and think about. If 
you're just doing this on your own internal network the sftp advantages 
disappear.

CB

On 1/3/14 8:16 AM, Kjsc Radio wrote:
There is two ways  to enable it. One is  to go in  to the terminal and type in 
a command which I forgot at the moment. But the other one is, to go in  to the 
server app  if you have it. And that can also enable the service. Sent from my 
iPhone

On 2 Jan 2014, at 2:20 pm, Chris Blouch <cblo...@aol.com> wrote:

Are you sure you want to do ftp and not sftp? ftp requires rather large swaths 
of ports to be opened before it will work. How did you enable ftp on your mac?

CB

On 12/29/13 9:55 AM, Kjsc Radio wrote:
Hello, I am thinking about setting up an FTP server using the server on Mac. 
I've done this before, but I have failed. Due to incorrect Port forwarding, I 
have forward ports 21 and other ports to make the FTP server work. But when one 
of my other machines connects to the network via FTP, it doesn't want to allow 
the connection. Is there any other ports that I should forward?

Sent from my iPhone
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