Which FTP Program to Choose

[Maljonic]

I've been using Cute FTP Pro version 1.0 for ages, which is mostly okay apart from when you need to upload/download lots of folders within folders - then it gets stuck saying there's too many connections.

I've been using the latest version of Cute FTP Pro 7.1 as a trial and I'm thinking of buying it today, purely because it's the only one I ever used basically so everything is familiar. It's only about 30 odd quid too.

Anyway I was just about to hit buy then thought I'd come here first and ask for opinions. I don't want to miss out on a better program if there is one out there just because I'm stuck in my ways.

 

[nath]

NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Cute is shite. FlashFXP is the way.

 

[leggy]

FlashFXP or Smart FTP.

Both free and both work.

 

[Penguin]

I mostly use a small simple FTP client called "IFTP" - It does the basics really well and i like it.

Aside from that, i also have FireFTP (The Firefox Extension) but i've really given up on that recently.. it's handy.. but before when i used it to upload lots of files it became VERY slow. I'm not sure if this has been fixed now there have been sevral updates since.

I may try FlashFXP - Looks interesting.

 

[Shovel]

SmartFTP certainly works OK. It's got some frankly ridiculous feature bloat (how many download queues does a man need? Seriously?), but it's generally functional (although drag+drop of files out of SmartFTP onto my desktop is broken).

I've tried FileZilla in the past as well which is reasonable (very clunky interface), and also has limited drag+drop.

Honestly I don't know what happened. I turned my back for three minutes and suddenly all the Windows FTP clients were shite.

(I'll try FlashFXP, though)

 

[nath]

(I'll try FlashFXP, though)

Do, you'll never look back.

 

[Maljonic]

Okay, I'm having a look at FlashFXP, but can someone tell me why CuteFTP is shite?

 

[nath]

One word: bloated.

 

[Maljonic]

No seriously, I'd like to know more than that...

 

[Sar]

I use Smart FTP. Have done for ages.

 

[nath]

Dunno tbh Mal. It's been a while since I used Cute but I really dislike the friendly overly helpful nature of it. It's also not terrifically intuitive (imo). FlashFXP is very straight forward, no bullshit, easy to use and very functional.

 

[Gef]

Directory Opus is the future! Couldnt live without it now, beats the hell out of cruddy windows explorer.

http://www.gpsoft.com.au/

 

[Maljonic]

Well I tried FlashFXP and didn't really like the feel of it, probably just because it's different to what I'm used to. I didn't like the lack of a visible transfer queue though so I can see what's happening.

I tried SmartFTP too, which is a bit more similar to CuteFTP than the above but I still didn't like the feel of it. The transfer queue is there but it doesn't seem to do anything. I don't like the way the file transfer works either, I prefer to be able to double click on files to upload them - doing this in SmartFTP opens the file instead. It reminds me a bit of the FTP Client that come with WebCEO, only that one talks to you with a Star Trek computer voice.

I haven't looked at Directory Opus properly but it seems a bit too much for what I want, like it's a lot more than just an FTP program and more of a Windows Explorer type file manager.

I'm sure there are settings to get all the above to do what I want, but they aren't immediately obvious to me, just because I'm not used to them I guess.

 

[nath]

I don't quite know what you mean by a visible transfer queue but everything that's going on with FlashFXP is visible somewhere on the program. You can view the queued files at the bottom left, and the current file transfer stats are written along the bottom of the window.

 

[Maljonic]

Well, it might be just 'cause I have it set up like a numpty, but the tranfer queue just likes like a bunch of green arrows with no indication of how far through file transfers are. So it either says they are being transfered or they are finished, with no visual way of seeing how long is left - instead of having a little green bar moving across for each of the 10 files (or whatever) you are transfering.