One
of the best, fastest and most stable FTP clients for
Windows operating systems is WS-FTP LE. This is a "Limited
Edition" of the full WS-FTP commercial application.
You can download it from here.
WS-FTP LE is free for personal and academic use. During the installation
check the appropriate answers, i.e. "For academic work at school"
or "For personal use at home" so it will install in a free mode.
WS-FTP
Installer will place the program's icon on your desktop. Double
click on it to launch the application.
When
you launch WS-FTP LE you will be presented with the Session
Properties window floating on the top of the main WS-FTP
LE window. We'll talk about the main window in a few moments.
The Session Properties window is where you specify
and save your FTP hosts. It has four tabs: General,
Startup, Advanced and Firewall.
Under the General tab you can create a new Profile,
i.e. shortcut. It probably opened up with some default Profile so
click the New button start with blank fields. Under
Profile Name enter any name by which your new shortcut
will be recognized, i.e. Titan. Under the Host name/Address
enter the actual URL, i.e. internet address of the server, for example:
titan.skb.med.nyu.edu. Leave the Host Type on Automatic
detect. Both UserID and Password
are Titan. You can check the Save Pwd
box to remember the password for the future connections. If the
sever accepts Anonymous connections then leave both User
ID and Password fields blank and check
the Anonymous box. leave Account
and Comment fields blank.
Click the Apply button. Now click on the Startup
tab.
Startup
Session Properties describes the initial directory on the
FTP host if you know it. This will save you time by taking you directly
into that directory which may be few levels deep and take several
clicks to get to. For Titan enter /mcbi-41/titan. Initial
local directory is the default download location for this Profile.
More about this in a while. You can enter any location on your drive,
i.e. C:\Downloads or leave it blank, it will default to
C:\. Leave other fields blank and click the Apply
button. Now click on the Advanced tab.
You
can leave the settings under the Advanced tab at
the default values. Here is what they mean. Connection Retry
specifies the number of time WS-FTP LE will attempt to
connect to the ftp server if the server is busy or refuses connection.
Network Timeout specifies how long WS-FTP LE will
wait for the server's response before it aborts and retries the
connection. Don't set it very low because most FTP servers take
several seconds to respond! If you set this to e very low number
you may never be able to connect to any server! Remote Port
(normally you don't need to know this) specifies the TCP/IP port
on which the server accepts connection. The default is 21 so leave
it as it is unless you are specifically instructed by the server
administrator to enter a different Port number. Passive
transfers check box - whether a given FTP server accepts
Passive transfers depends on its configuration
and location. Try to check Passive on at first to see if it works.
If you connect normally then leave it on. If you can't connect or
you connect but you can't see any directories or get a directory
listing error then uncheck the Passive transfers box. Click the
Apply button.
We will not talk about the last Firewall tab as
it will most likely not apply under normal circumstances. Click
the OK button to close the Session Properties
window and connect to the currently selected host. Your Profile,
i.e. bookmark or shortcut has been saved. You will be able to select
it now from the Profile name menu.
This
is the main WS-FTP LE window. On the left it shows all
your local drives or the default download directory for the given
session if such was specified. On the right it shows the current
directory of the FTP server you're connected to. It will be blank
if you are not connected to any FTP server. Note the pull-down menus
as marked by arrows.
To
open a drive on the left or a directory on the right simply double
click on it (drive H marked by arrow) . To go back up in the directory
hierarchy on either side double-click the green up-arrow to go up
by one level. You can also select any directory from the mentioned
pull-down menus on either side (marked with arrows).
To
download a file select it in the right (server) window then click
the Left Arrow button in the middle as marked below.
You can select several files by Control-clicking or Shift-clicking
just like in Windows.
To
upload a file select it in the left (local) window then click the
Right Arrow button in the middle as marked below.
You can select several files by Control-clicking or Shift-clicking
just like in Windows.
You
can also upload files by dragging them from your desktop or any
folder into the right (server) window.
Whether
you are downloading or uploading files you will see a progress window
as shown on the right. It may not show if you're transferring small
files or the connection to the server is very fast so it happens
very quickly.
