Best FTP software?

Posted by Chris Davis on December 4, 2009 at 1:39am

Hi everybody,

As documented in another thread, when I started building websites I used website design software, first Microsoft Frontpage and then Serif WebPlus. All of these had their own internal FTP software, and so I'd been working with websites (albeit not coding them) for several years before I had to call upon the services of a dedicated FTP program.

My first experience of hand coding HTML was working on a fan-based project for (don't laugh!) an animated series that I'm a big fan of (hosted by a friend of mine who lives in the US - so, sadly not hosted with Compila!), and my friend suggested I use Ipswitch's WS_FTP. I went through the necessary, downloaded that and have found it to be a very reliable piece of software.

However, I must admit that my knowledge of FTP software is embarrassingly thin on the ground, and so I'm now wondering what you guys consider to be the best FTP software, and why? I know that there are a load of other FTP clients out there, and I'm wondering what advantages/disadvantages each has over the other, and how the various ones differ from each other?

Also, is there an "idiot guide" (for want of a better expression!) online that could teach me about how to get the most out of FTP? All I've ever done with WS_FTP is transfer files from my computer to the Internet - however, I've recently begun researching the subject a bit more and have discovered that there are two different types of transfer modes: ASCII and binary. This is all new to me, and I'd love to learn more about it - as you can probably guess, I've always had my FTP set to auto-detect the transfer mode!

Any advice, comments, suggestions, tips or helpful links would be very much appreciated - many thanks everyone for your help!

Best wishes,

Chris

Tags: ftp, publishing, software

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Compila Limited on January 3, 2010 at 10:27

Reply by Compila Limited on December 4, 2009 at 12:53pm

Hi Chris,

We have passed this onto our Compila Studio Team (www.compilastudio.com). At present they are very busy on implementing some new changes to our site, but they should have their thoughts and comments on this post uploaded on Monday for you, so please check back then.

Kind Regards

Compila

Permalink Reply by Compila Limited on January 3, 2010 at 10:28

Reply by Dave Cooper 1 day ago

I like Ftp Commander for a windows OS. The community edition (or whatever they call it) is free and it's got all the functionality you need plus it's small and quick.

Dave

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on January 3, 2010 at 10:40

Hi Chris,

Different modes of FTP transfer are bascially used for different types of files. In the old days you had to select files and upload them in the correct mode, however nowadays the FTP software should do this automatically for you, if you have the transfer mode set to auto.

Some of the most common file types that should be transferred in ASCII mode includes:

* txt - Plain text files.
* htm, html, css - Files containing HTML or CSS mark-up.
* asp, vbs, js - Files containing scripting delivered through HTTP.

If a file containing binary data is sent using ASCII mode, it will most likely end up being corrupted. If you're having problems with corrupted file transfers, try using binary mode when transferring the file. Some common file formats that are sometimes mistakenly transferred in ASCII mode includes:

* pdf - PDF files can contain embedded binary data such as images.
* doc - Microsoft Word documents are a binary formatted file.
* In general, all audio, video, and image file formats are binary.

http://www.rhinosoft.com/newsletter/NewsL2008-03-18.asp

Over the years I have used many different FTP clients, however a very good free one is FileZilla. http://filezilla-project.org/
I can't really say why it is better or worse than any other software, I just know it works very well, is fast and reliable and has all the features that you need.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Chris Davis on January 3, 2010 at 23:57

Hi Dave,

Many thanks for your message - really great to see this thread getting some replies, and very interested to read the responses.

I must admit that FTP Commander is a completely new name on me - is there anywhere I can read more about it? And, in your opinion, what are the main selling points of it that make it a good selection for FTP software? I'd be really interested to learn more about it, so would be appreciative of any links or additional info you were able to provide.

Many thanks again for your very helpful response.

Best wishes,

Chris

Compila Limited said:

Reply by Dave Cooper 1 day ago

I like Ftp Commander for a windows OS. The community edition (or whatever they call it) is free and it's got all the functionality you need plus it's small and quick.

Dave

Permalink Reply by Chris Davis on January 4, 2010 at 0:10

Hi Harvey,

Many thanks for this excellent and very informative response, and for the superb link, which was very enlightening. As always, your clearly laid-out and highly informative answers are superb.

Reading on Filezilla's website, I have an additional question (with apologies as usual for my lack of prior knowledge) - I notice from Filezilla that you can download either an FTP client or an FTP server? What's the difference between the two things and why would one be favoured over the other? Again, if anyone has any knowledge of this, I'd be really interested to learn more about it.

Many thanks again for all your kind help.

Best wishes,

Chris

Harvey Raybould said:

Hi Chris,

Different modes of FTP transfer are bascially used for different types of files. In the old days you had to select files and upload them in the correct mode, however nowadays the FTP software should do this automatically for you, if you have the transfer mode set to auto.

Some of the most common file types that should be transferred in ASCII mode includes:

* txt - Plain text files.
* htm, html, css - Files containing HTML or CSS mark-up.
* asp, vbs, js - Files containing scripting delivered through HTTP.

If a file containing binary data is sent using ASCII mode, it will most likely end up being corrupted. If you're having problems with corrupted file transfers, try using binary mode when transferring the file. Some common file formats that are sometimes mistakenly transferred in ASCII mode includes:

* pdf - PDF files can contain embedded binary data such as images.
* doc - Microsoft Word documents are a binary formatted file.
* In general, all audio, video, and image file formats are binary.

http://www.rhinosoft.com/newsletter/NewsL2008-03-18.asp

Over the years I have used many different FTP clients, however a very good free one is FileZilla. http://filezilla-project.org/
I can't really say why it is better or worse than any other software, I just know it works very well, is fast and reliable and has all the features that you need.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Gerald Hornsby on January 4, 2010 at 0:31

I've used a number of FTP programs over the years. I now use Filezilla. It's very intuitive, they have versions for both PC and Mac (I use both), and it just works. I first tried it about 4 years ago, I think, and haven't used anything else since.

I normally let it autodetect what mode to transfer in. The only time I change it is when the software to be installed demands it.

Gerald

Permalink Reply by Chris Davis on January 4, 2010 at 0:40

Hi Gerald,

Many thanks for this excellent and informative response, which I very much appreciate. It sounds like Filezilla is a very popular program - I wonder how many other CompilaExchange members use it? :)

As an experienced Filezilla user, are you able to explain to me the difference between an FTP client and an FTP server? I'm assuming that the FTP client is what I should be using, but I'd very much welcome both a confirmation of this and an explanation as to the difference between the two things. Many thanks for sharing your knowledge with me, it really is very much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Chris

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on January 4, 2010 at 6:30

Hi Chris,

Just to clarify you would need to use the FTP client software to upload your files to Compila's servers.

The FTP server version is only needed if you had a server connected to the web and required multiple users/members/customers to FTP to different areas of the computer. Although, we do not use FileZilla we have "FTP server" software running on our hosting servers and this is what allows you to upload your files to Compila.

It doesn't just have to work in a hosting environment, but say for example, a company had their own server connected to the web and had multiple nationwide or worldwide offices. They might have FTP server software running, so that employees from around the UK or worldwide could upload and download files from a central storage area.

I hope that helps.

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Chris Davis on January 4, 2010 at 14:41

Hi Harvey,

Many thanks once again for your excellent and informative response, which makes perfect sense - thanks so much as always for all the knowledge that you and everyone else here at CompilaExchange is willing to share, it all makes being part of this online community a very rewarding experience!

Needless to say I'd still definitely be interested in receiving recommendations/reviews for FTP clients from any other Exchange members too - many thanks! :)

Best wishes,

Chris

Harvey Raybould said:

Hi Chris,

Just to clarify you would need to use the FTP client software to upload your files to Compila's servers.

The FTP server version is only needed if you had a server connected to the web and required multiple users/members/customers to FTP to different areas of the computer. Although, we do not use FileZilla we have "FTP server" software running on our hosting servers and this is what allows you to upload your files to Compila.

It doesn't just have to work in a hosting environment, but say for example, a company had their own server connected to the web and had multiple nationwide or worldwide offices. They might have FTP server software running, so that employees from around the UK or worldwide could upload and download files from a central storage area.

I hope that helps.

Regards

Harvey