Forum Moderators: travelin cat
Please pass on any observations regarding ease-of-use, price, effectiveness, etc.
Thanks in advance
RBrowser is cool, but it gives me lots of errors and there are some places I need to FTP to, that just won't work with RBrowser lite.
Fugu can be found at [rsug.itd.umich.edu...] and is really nice but it only supports SFTP, a problem for some people myself included. If that works for you though, I would recommend it highly.
I am definitely still waiting for the right FTP client for OS X. It seems like new ones come out every day. MacUpdate has a recent one name FTPeel with nifty icons but it Doesn't support SSL. <sigh>
I've switched to Transmit which is fast, easy to use, and seems to be well-maintained.
There are some java-based programs out there too - not Mac-specific but probably useful. I haven't tried any, but I've seen a list somewhere.
A search at versiontracker for "ftp" brings up a surprisingly long and current list. Some are just simple FTP uploaders and others are more sophisticated but maybe unnecessary in your case.
1. The Finder: Choose Connect to Server and then type something like:
ftp://ftp.yourftpdoman.com. Then just drag files around as normal.
2. The Terminal: If you need more power to automate, etc., and are not allergic to command lines, the Unix command prompt is good. Open the Terminal and type "man ftp" for instructions.
(Learn a little more Unix [shell scripts & CRON jobs] and you can automate any FTP task.)
I no longer "clutter" my hard drive with an FTP client, since these two methods meet my needs.
I knew I could connect to a server, but it never occured to me I could connect via FTP to somewhere outside my network. Wow, I'm gonna try this one right now!
How does this compare with just connecting via port 548 or file sharing? Is one more secure?
When I'm worried about security for file transfer I use SSH or SCP.
(So I guess that would be a good argument for a quality FTP client.)
1) Use SSH tunnels for all traffic to and from your site. This keeps your passwords and login account names secret. However, your hosting service has to allow SSH connections and you have to be able to drop the SSH tokens in the right places.
2) Use SSHTunnelBuilder to automagially create the tunnels from a GUI application. In my case I port forward from a obscure port on localhost to the server. Thus, I secure mail (POP and SMTP), SFTP, as well as control panel interactions.
As a bonus, you get around all SMTP limitations that some ISPs like Comcast try to impose - the SSH session tunnels right through to your mail server, bypassing all roadblocks meant to trap spammers, not legit users like yourself.
Best of all, SSH is free. But you'd be surprised how many hosting services do not allow its use. SSH support was one of my critera as SSL is way to expensive... some hosting services hat SSH as it shields their eyes too. But I see it as a essential tool to prevent my passwords and logins to be intercepted on the way to my server.
Some FTP programs like Transmit, Interarchy, etc. have SFTP built-in. With a SSH tunnel you can secure non-SFTP-enabled FTP programs, terminal sessions, etc. Don't leave home without it!
>As a bonus, you get around all SMTP limitations that some ISPs like
>Comcast try to impose - the SSH session tunnels right through to your
>mail server, bypassing all roadblocks meant to trap spammers, not
>legit users like yourself.
If my Hosting service allows this, I'll be seriously jazzed. No more changing SMTP servers when I take my laptop from place to place.
