Using Filezilla to transfer files from Windows machine to AWS virtual Windows machine

Question

I wish to upload files from my Windows 10 laptop to an Amazon Web Services EC2 virtual Windows machine.

I have seen at least a couple of similar questions on StackOverflow and numerous web pages and YouTube videos showing how to transfer to a virtual Linux machine using Filezilla. However, none of the instructions they offer work in my case. I am using Filezilla Pro. I suspect the issue might be related to the User name I specify within Filezilla as documented below, but I do not know.

Here is a similar StackOverflow post:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16744863/connect-to-amazon-ec2-file-directory-using-filezilla-and-sftp

Here are the steps I am taking:

1. In Filezilla: Edit > Settings > and select SFTP
2. Click Add key file. The key file ends in .pem. Filezilla does not ask to change format of the file to .ppk. The key file is the one generated when I created the virtual machine. I assume the most recent versions of Filezilla Pro perform this format conversion automatically. Click Ok.
3. File > Site Manager > New Site
4. Name new site: AWS
5. Protocol: SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol
6. Host: Copy and paste text from the Public DNS (IPv4) column in the AWS dashboard display. This text begins with ec2 and ends with .compute.amazonaws.com. In between it appears to include the IPv4 Public IP and region code information.
7. Logon Type: Normal
8. User: I have no idea what to put here. I have tried the following:

ec2-user (commonly used with Linux), xmiller (my name used to create the AWS account), the text in the Security Groups column of the AWS dashboard that shows one of my virtual machines is running, and the text in the Group ID column when I click on the text in the Security Groups column of the AWS dashboard.

9. I leave the Password blank. Perhaps I am not supposed to?

10: Then I click Connect.

I always get these messages:

Status: Connecting to ec2-otherstuff.compute.amazonaws.com...
Response:   fzSftp started, protocol_version=8
Command:    keyfile "C:\Users\mark_\Documents\R_on_the_cloud\keyname.pem"
Command:    open "[email protected]" 22
Error:  Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity
Error:  Could not connect to server

Thank you for any suggestions. I will gladly provide additional information if that would be helpful.

Answer 1

As you cannot even connect, I assume that you did not enable inbound SSH traffic from your IP address to your instance:

To add a rule to a security group for inbound SSH traffic over IPv4 (console)

• In the navigation pane of the Amazon EC2 console, choose Instances. Select your instance and look at the Description tab; Security groups lists the security groups that are associated with the instance. Choose view inbound rules to display a list of the rules that are in effect for the instance.

• In the navigation pane, choose Security Groups. Select one of the security groups associated with your instance.

• In the details pane, on the Inbound tab, choose Edit. In the dialog, choose Add Rule, and then choose SSH from the Type list.

• ...