FTP using SSH hangs

[Tschroeder]

Someone that I connect to via FTP wants to move to a more secure connection using SSH.   They gave me a new address and port(22) and said the the first time I would have to accept a 'fingerprint' file and then enter my normal user id and password.    When I connect, I hit enter on my FTP command and then the screen looks like the example below (I changed the address to protect the guilty).

$ ftp sshftp.clientaddress.com 22

SSH-2.0-WS_FTP-SSH_7.5.1

It just sits like that and never changes.   I am running OpenVMS 8.3, TCP/IP version -> v5.6

[Tschroeder]

Thanks Steven, that worked.    I had to create a new user on my system that matches the user name on the FTP server.   But then logged in as that new user, I was able to SFTP right in and enter my password.   THANKS!!!

[Tschroeder]

With regular FTP, I was able to specify an input file that contained my user id / password and commands to upload files.   With SFTP, I don't need the user id, but I still have to enter a password, and after doing research it looks like I can't specify pwd in a batch (input) file.   

This process is automated and runs at night, so I need to be able to get the password in the input file, OR exchange SSH keys between my Open VMS machine and the client's SFTP server.    

1)  Does anyone have a trick for the password in the input file?    

2)  If I need to do the key exchange, are there any special directions since this is coming from an OpenVMS machine?   

Note:   I know how to spell SSH, beyond that, I am clueless.

Thanks.

[Richard Brodie_1]

You'll probably need to convert the public key from SSH2 format to OpenSSH format. That will be easier on the far end, though. Picking a random link: http://burnz.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/ssh-convert-openssh-to-ssh2-and-vise-versa/