Most FTP clients in the less-than-US$40 range have all of the basic features that you'll need to become a power FTP user. Even so, it may take a short period of trial and error before you find an FTP client that you totally jive with. When choosing an FTP client, you should aim for an application which:
- Has an easy to use interface that clearly displays both the local (your computer) and remote (the FTP server) locations
- Has a tool to manage multiple login accounts on multiple servers
- Logs your FTP sessions
- Provides a way to select between active and passive FTP when connecting
- Auto-detects or warns you when ASCII mode is required
- Allows you to set folder and file permissions on the server (essential when installing a server-side application such as Moveable Type)
- Allows anonymous FTP
There are several popular clients for Windows. An easy-to-use and entirely free application called FileZilla is a great place to start. It was created by an open source community headed by Tim Kosse, and even though the user interface is a little intimidating, FileZilla has all of the features you'll need to get cracking.
If you are nervous about digging right in to FTP on your own, follow along with Heidi's CuteFTP walk-through. CuteFTP, made by GlobalSCAPE, Inc., costs $39.95 per user license, but is well worth it.
Another crowd favorite in the world of Windows FTP clients is WS_FTP Pro by Ipswitch. Also $39.95 per user license, WS_FTP offers a clean interface and connection management tools that make it well worth the price. The free, lightweight WS_FTP LE is also available from Ipswitch for non-commercial use.
If you're using a Macintosh, most people point you toward Fetch Softworks' ever-popular Fetch client. It's simple, it's easy, and it costs $25 per user license. If you need a little extra hand-holding with this tool, try Wendy's Fetch walk-through.
My personal favorite client for the Mac is Panic's Transmit. It's a little buggy as of this writing, but it has the cleanest user experience I've ever encountered in an FTP client. Transmit costs $24.95 per user license.
An excellent free FTP client for Mac OS X is Fugu. The user interface is a tad spare, but Fugu supports ultra-secure OpenSSH SFTP encryption.
FTPing with the Browser
As we have seen, the best way to run FTP is through a real FTP client. However sometimes it's just plain easier to grab files off an FTP server using a Web browser. As you'll notice, when a browser is pointed to an FTP server instead of a Web server, the http:// in the address field changes to ftp:// — you're working with a different protocol, after all. Your browser's address field will look something like this:
ftp://username:password@ftp.fakesite.org/
When using a browser to connect to an FTP server, you may be asked to log in just like you would if you were connecting with an FTP client. Once inside the server, your user name and the password you give will be reflected in the server path, as shown above. If you logged in anonymously, your username would show up as the word "anonymous" and your email address would serve as the password. Most browsers are set to log into FTP servers anonymously by default.
A Web browser can navigate an FTP server much like any other file system. You can click on folder's name to browse that particular folder and click on files to download them. But even though browser FTPing is nice an convenient, as a general rule use an FTP client whenever possible. Browsers offer minimal functionality and, not surprisingly, minimal security in FTP mode.
next page»
