I had not changed or upgraded my FTP software in years. As I started switching from a Windows XP machine to Windows Vista machine a few months ago, I decided to look around for something new.
I’ve used several commercial FTP packages in the past. Most IT departments
prefer commercial packages. That attitude seems to be changing with the growing
popularity of open source software.
As I do not need anything special, I decided to look no further than several
free FTP programs.
FileZilla is one of the oldest and most popular open source FTP packages. It is multi-platform, and I although I only need an FTP client, it is nice to know they also have an FTP server.
More importantly, FileZilla has been Unicode-based since version 2.2.23 (2006), is Vista compatible and available as a portable application. It also checks for and reports the availability of updates.
FileZilla is also a fairly straightforward application, complete with a transfer queue and
a message log, that just works.
One nice little feature is that I can tell it to always overwrite, and not
prompt for confirmation, when the upload is newer than the target.
I do not like that its directory selection box takes up space when you are not
using it or that it shows status message at the top instead of the bottom, and
its so-called Quickconnect
button is not quick at all; if you just click it, it does
not even try to connect. The true quick connect is the small drop down
menu next to it, which remembers your settings for multiple hosts.
GoFTP is commercial software that is free for individuals and small organisations. The website claims that GoFTP is faster than FileZilla, but what attracted me was the cleaner looking screenshot.
Alas, installation of GoFTP 2.1.85 failed with an error message about its failure to install the STDOLE2.TLB Type Library. Apparently, GoFTP is not Vista-ready.
Another commercial product with a free variant is Core FTP. Core FTP is available in the free Core FTP LE (Light Edition) and the paid-for Core FTP Pro edition. The free Light Edition includes everything you really need.
Core FTP installed just fine, but there is a deliberate three-second delay every
time you start it. Core FTP LE is not freeware, it is nagware.
Deliberately making me wait is unacceptable. That is annoying enough to
uninstall it immediately without even trying its features. I do not plan to
waste my time waiting on nagware.
FireFTP is not a Windows application, but a Firefox add-on and is updated like all other Firefox add-ons. FireFTP runs in a browser tab, which it opens as soon as you select FireFTP from the Firefox Tools menu.
The interface FireFTP presents in that tab is very much like how other FTP programs looks. FireFTP’s interface for changing drives is awkwardly separate from interface for changing directories, but if you only need to set it once that does not matter much.
It is fairly easy to use. It does not have the overwrite smarts of FileZilla, it will either display the overwrite dialog or not, regardless of the timestamps. It has a real QuickConnect, one where you only need to click a button, but it is not perfect. To say that I found its response to browser resizing to be not so smart understates the problem.
A FireFTP annoyance is that it shows dates in an antilogical format with no way to make it show dates in a proper format. I consider it a defect, as it bluntly pushes the erroneous convention of the author’s locale, without respect for either international standards or the user’s system settings. FileZilla does respect my system settings.
FireFTP’s obvious appeal, its advantage over FileZilla is that the command to start it is right there on the browser’s Tools menu, no need to search for a desktop or Quick Launch icon. If its user interface issues were solved, I might make it my main FTP client. It is a sizeable Firefox add-on, but small compared to many desktop clients.
Although I miss FireFTP’s real QuickConnect every time I use FileZilla, and wish it had directory selection that fits the operating system (I don’t like Vista’s Explorer, but I do like consistency), it is FileZilla that I am using most. FireFTP’s handling of browser resizing seems to have improved in recent versions, so I am trying it again. I uploaded this article with FireFTP.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.