# FTP Clients



## Irreverent (May 4, 2009)

What's everyone using for their favourite FTP client these days?  I'm looking for a new one and need a client that is:

0. open source, not crippleware or beggerware
1. XP/Vista compatible
2. lite, single exe would be ideal
3. scriptable
4. has a linux varient with the same UI and features

What says you team?


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## Ruko (May 4, 2009)

I don't know if meets all of your requirements, but the only one I've ever used is Filezilla. It's free and easy to use and works on Windows, Linux and Macs.


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## SnowFox (May 4, 2009)

I use filezilla too, but probably only because it came up first on a search. I don't know if it's just me but I'm not all that impressed with it.

When uploading it reaches 100% fairly quickly but it can take up to a minute longer before it actually finishes the upload. I thought maybe it was verifying it during this time, but.... It also seems to corrupt a significant number of uploads even when it says the transfer was successful. I normally have to upload things several times choosing "skip if size is the same" before I can actually be sure it's uploaded everything properly.

It also doesn't seem to be able to calculate the file size correctly of ASCII files if they contain the both LF & CR characters.

It might just be me though


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## Irreverent (May 4, 2009)

What I'm really looking for is something like WS_FTP, the circa 1993-95 version or similar.  Lite, fast, accurate.


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## net-cat (May 4, 2009)

FileZilla.

But what exactly do you mean by "scriptable?" I think "scriptable" and I think wget.


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## Irreverent (May 4, 2009)

net-cat said:


> But what exactly do you mean by "scriptable?" I think "scriptable" and I think wget.


 
Able to handle simple scripts or macros to back up a bunch of stuff with one click.


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## SnowFox (May 4, 2009)

Irreverent said:


> Able to handle simple scripts or macros to back up a bunch of stuff with one click.



I'd like something that does that too. I resorted to using the windows FTP program in a batch file


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## ToeClaws (May 4, 2009)

I use FileZilla nowadays as well.  Haven't seen WS_FTP stuff for ages.  FileZilla's nice in that it does FTP, but also SFTP and SCP transfers.  It also multitheads which is particularly handy for speeding up SFTP/SCP.


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## Shino (May 4, 2009)

I haven't manually FTP'ed anything in ages (unless you count Dreamweaver's internal FTP engine) but I keep PsFTP around for when I can't get the HTTP transfer working. It's from the makers of PuTTY, the scarily small secure SSH client, and if you like command line, it's a wonderfully simple program. It's the only one I've used that doesn't have constant flagrant errors with GoDaddy's servers. 
But yeah, FileZilla is a good one, too.


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## Irreverent (May 4, 2009)

Shino said:


> II keep PsFTP around for when I can't get the HTTP transfer working. It's from the makers of PuTTY, the scarily small secure SSH client, and if you like command line, it's a wonderfully simple program.



Got it, use it, mosty at work.  CLI is a PITA for things like vbulletin upgrades, drag and drop GUI makes it a tonne easier.

Looks like Filezilla is the new kid on the block.  FireFTP (a snap-in for FF) seems pretty good too.



ToeClaws said:


> I use FileZilla nowadays as well.  Haven't seen WS_FTP stuff for ages.



Still out there, but not shareware anymore.  



> FileZilla's nice in that it does FTP, but also SFTP and SCP transfers.  It also multitheads which is particularly handy for speeding up SFTP/SCP.



Yeah, I saw that, nice feature.


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## Eevee (May 4, 2009)

I haven't used vanilla FTP in _years_.

I just use scp and assorted other SSH tools.  If I really desperately needed to visually browse a remote machine, I'd mount it with sshfs and look at it in my normal file browser.


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## net-cat (May 4, 2009)

(p)scp and wget for one-off file transfers or for scripted transfers. (Hurrah for ssh-agent and pageant.)

sshfs for remote browsing on Linux. (gvfs makes it dead easy, supports FTP as well.)

FileZilla for remote browsing on Windows.


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## Sam (May 4, 2009)

Filezilla.




At school I use something called "Core FTP".


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## Pi (May 5, 2009)

kerberized rcp


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## Carenath (May 5, 2009)

Irreverent said:


> What's everyone using for their favourite FTP client these days?  I'm looking for a new one and need a client that is:
> 
> 0. open source, not crippleware or beggerware
> 1. XP/Vista compatible
> ...


WinSCP by far the best client I have ever used, its free, its open-source, it runs as a single binary.. and I believe it supports simple Macro's though I havn't used its advanced featureset.



Irreverent said:


> Got it, use it, mosty at work.  CLI is a PITA for things like vbulletin upgrades, drag and drop GUI makes it a tonne easier.
> 
> Looks like Filezilla is the new kid on the block.  FireFTP (a snap-in for FF) seems pretty good too.


You use vBulletin... I am so sorry, you have my condolences.

FireFTP is what I used before I discovered WinSCP supports FTP as well.


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## Runefox (May 5, 2009)

> WinSCP



I was wondering if someone would mention WinSCP. It seems to be exactly what you're looking for, Irre, and it supports scripting, too. It does support virtually every protocol you'd want to use with it, and it's generally got a very good interface. The only thing it doesn't have is a Linux variant. If you really, really needed to, you could run it under Wine.

I used to use SmartFTP, but that's not open source nor really free. I'm sure it had scripting though, but I never had need to use it.



> You use vBulletin... I am so sorry, you have my condolences.


So does the FAF! =D


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## Carenath (May 5, 2009)

Runefox said:


> So does the FAF! =D


*sighs* Unfortunatly... to the poor server's detriment :/


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