FTP Client

Anyone know of a free FTP client? I have been using the trials for Transmit and Fetch, and I really like Transmit, I just don't feel like paying $30. Is there any other free ones that are decent?

 

you could try smartftp instead.

 

I use gFTP.

 

FileZilla is free and part of the OpenSource

 

Oops sorry, I did not know I was posting on an Apple thread.

 

Is there something wrong with the built in FTP in finder?

It works great whenever I need to use the FTP protocol, and it causes Finder to act like its another harddrive on your computer as well.

Plus you get the nice functionality of spring folders and such.

If you are looking for specific features that Finder's FTP does not provide what are they?

 

I had actually not thought of that! I will give it a try tonight when I have time. Thanks guys for your help.

 

http://paulstamatiou.com/2005/12/19/10-apps-every-new-mac-user-should-download/
Cyber duck
I don't use it, but hey... i'ts free

 

I didn't know that either. How do I use it? Command-K and type in the server address? while I hardly use FTP for anything other than downloading these days, people who need to upload files to a plethora of sites needs more robust clients, with the ability to maintain different configuration for different ftp sites, different login/passwords pairs, start-up folders and so on.

 

Using Finder to connect to FTP is very simple to do.

1. Go to Finder so that Finder shows in the upper menu.

2. Click Go, choose Connect to Server... or Command-K

3. type in the ftp address (ex. ftp://ftp.domain.com) you don't need to put in your username and pass info yet.

4. hit connect button, now it will ask for your username and password, if you want to keep that information in Keychain as well as if you want to add it to your 'Favorites list' which is located in the first dialog that appears when you enter Command-K for easy connecting the next time.

4. It starts connecting and it will open a new finder window with you logged in, as well as show a networked drive icon on your desktop. (it in my opinion connects very fast, depends on the server though too)

I believe it should pretty much fits the bill for meeting your needs with multiple ftp sites with different configurations as well, there are settings to change how finder acts when its using the FTP

really, there isn't much of a need for an external FTP client after all. Especially start imaginging what you can do if you start using some AppleScript or the automator with it.

 

Humm, that is a good idea. One can probably automate all the work with AppleScript, using different folders for each site and writing a custom script that connects and uploads everything.

 

I honestly don't think that the built in connect to server is good enough. First off, it has a problem with samba connections. I connect to 4 different drives at the university, and they go smb://server/users/username
well, the way it maps it in OS X is that it maps the smb://server/users
so if I close the finder window, and I have to go back into it... it takes forever as it has to load something like, 30k user folders.
Bit off topic...
But I don't much enjoy using that for ftp either.

 

if you are using FireFox for OS X, you can get the FireFTP extension.

Its free and works fine.

 

I found something just perfect for it too.
http://www.automatorworld.com/archives/upload-to-ftp/

Seems like the creator keeps adding in more support that users request from it.

 

I looked more in depth on the FTP with Finder, and apparently it does have its fall backs and issues, apparantly some of the issues can be resolved with going into terminal and using command lines and editing configuration files, where as this is mostly advanced stuff, it's not exactly suitable for an average user.

So I looked around and found a client thats actually very nice, and is licensed under GPL so the software is free.

Its worth checking out. CyberDuck

 

Cerebus (I think I spelled that right)...good Java based FTP server. Works on all platforms that support Java. Found it really easy as well, but I don't know it's drawbacks.