FTP (Client) Guides

FTP Client Guides
Please keep posts in here for questions and/or comments related to the guides or clients themselves--general chatter should probably go somewhere else, for clarity.

Guides Available
- FlashFXP
- gFTP
- WS_FTP
- SmartFTP (tenseiken) - Post 2

Guide: FlashFXP
Version assumed is 3.0. They should all be the same, menu-wise. If not, I apologise.

This is a guide for FlashFXP, my client of choice on Windows.

Once you grab the installer from their site, run it and install it as you like--the default options should suffice for most, and they are what I assume you use. Upon completion, run FlashFXP, and you ought be presented with an FTP window and a Restore Queue dialogue. Cancel that dialogue window, but leave FlashFXP itself open.

Hit Options > Preferences (or just F6, alternatively) to bring up the Configure FlashFXP dialogue. Be sure to change the Connect Retry Delay option to 60 seconds, as many of the FTPs around here require it. Additionally, you can increase the Connect Retry Count option above the default if you like--this is how many times FlashFXP will try to connect before it quits.

Next, hit the Options tab. While all changes in here are optional, there are a couple things which I suggest be changed. Exit During Transfer and Exit With Non-Empty Queue in the Confirmations section should both be enabled. This is to stop FlashFXP from dying if you accidentally hit the Close button on the window.

Everything in the Sounds, Advanced, and Transfer tabs are acceptable at default settings. If you require use of a proxy server, enter the details required in the Proxy/Firewall/Ident tab (you should know what to do there).

We are now done with the required configuration of FlashFXP. If you want to automate it more, look below, if not, skip a couple paragraphs.

To automate it, hit Options > File Exist Rules, and a grid similar to what is below should appear:

Destination | Downloading | Uploading | FXP (Site-to-Site)
------------+-------------+-----------+-------------------
Smaller     | [Select]    | [Select]  | [Select]
------------+-------------+-----------+-------------------
Same        | [Select]    | [Select]  | [Select]
------------+-------------+-----------+-------------------
Larger      | [Select]    | [Select]  | [Select]

I suggest the Smaller, Downloading to Auto Resume; Same, Downloading to Auto Skip; Larger, Downloading to Ask. If it's not selected, select the On Ask, wait [SELECT] seconds then overwrite option, as this will keep the client from stalling out.

Now for connecting to our servers. Hit F8. You can input typical information at this time (like host, port, and user), so do that. HOWEVER, look at the Toggles tab first. In here we can set a lot of server-specific information, which you are free to do with as you see fit. Use Passive Mode is the most important option in here--set it accordingly to the server you are connecting to (some require Passive Mode, some Active Mode (PORT)).

Let us now assume you got in--your FTP window will have four panes. According to the Cartesian coordinate grid. The top-right square is I, top-left is II, bottom-left is III, and bottom-right is IV.

I: Remote Pane
- This is the FTP server's files.
II: Local Pane
- This represents your computer's file system.
III: Queue Pane
- This shows what files have been selected for transfer, and status.
IV: Status Pane[/b]
- This shows all the commands and status your FTP client and the FTP have sent back and forth. If it's saying "Connection failed", make sure you see the reason above it.

Notice how both I and II have files displayed? You can drag-and-drop files either way to transfer up to the FTP or down to your machine. Alternatively, you can right-click a file and hit Transfer or Transfer As... to get/put files.

Guide: gFTP
This assumes any version of gFTP using GTK2--version 2.0.18 is the standard with most distros.

Fire up gFTP, and fetch the connection details for the FTP you want to connect to. In this case, we shall assume the below details:

Host: 123.456.789.255
Port: 2155
Transfer Mode: PASV (Passive)
User: name
Pass: word

Once gFTP is up, hit Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks, and a small dialogue should pop up. I'm guessing there's a huge list of defaults--you may leave those if you like, but I usually prune them off. Right-click in the list, and hit New Item. You will be presented with a great deal of options seperated under tabs--below, each tab and its options are explained. If the name of the option is coloured yellow, it is REQUIRED. If it's green, it is optional.

Bookmark
Description: Name to save the bookmark with. We'll use Blah_Test for our example.
Hostname: Host of the server. In our example, this is 123.456.789.255.
Port: If the port you need to enter is 21, this can be left blank. In our example, you set it to 2155.
Protocol: Leave this at FTP (the default).
Remote Directory: Leave this blank.
Local Directory: This can be set to whatever you like. It's where gFTP opens by default locally.
Username: User to connect with. Our example's is name.
Password: Password to use. Our example's is word.
Account: Leave it empty.
Log in as ANONYMOUS: Disable this.

General
Remote Character Sets: Don't worry about this--if you need it, you'll know how to use it.
Remote LC_TIME: You can safely ignore this.
Cache TTL: How long do you want to cache directory lists and such? This is in seconds.
Overwrite by Default: Overwrite or resume transfers that die halfway?
Preserve file permissions: Keep the same mode as the files on the server? Downloading from GFF's FTPs, this can be safely enabled as the FTPs are pretty well publically moderated. Be careful about it if you're downloading files from someone you do not trust!
Preserve file time: Keep the same file time as that on the server? Enable or disable as you like.
Refresh after each file transfer: Refresh the local file listing after each transfer completes--this can be enabled, but it's generally unnecessary.
Sort directories first: Put directories ahead of files in the list (sorted alphabetically)? If disabled, everything gets sorted in one huge group.
Show hidden files: Show dotfiles (.filename) or no? This is enabled by default, and it's likely not relevant to GFF's FTPs.

Network
Network timeout: Leave it at the default unless you need to toy with this (how long to wait for the network to reply before dying).
Connect retries: How many times do you want to retry to connect to the server before dying? Set to 0 to retry indefinitely.
Retry sleep time: Set to 60 or you risk eating a ban from the majority of GFF's servers! This is how many seconds to wait between retries.
Max KB/S: If you want to limit how fast gFTP downloads, set this, otherwise it can be left blank.
Transfer Block Size: When transferring files, gFTP will transfer things in chunks. This defines how big each chunk is. It should be a multiple of 1024, and the default of 20480 should be fine for everyone.
Enable IPv6 Support: Leave it at the default (enabled) unless it poses a problem for you.

FTP
Email address: When connecting anonymously, this will be sent as the password.
Ignore PASV address: This may be needed if the FTP you're attempting to connect to is behind a router and you're getting weird errors while using PASV mode. You may also need to switch to PORT mode (see the next option).
Passive file transfers: If the FTP requires PASV mode, enable this. If it requires Active (PORT) mode, disable it.
Resolve Remote Symlinks: Leaving this enabled is generally fine--it's there to help following symbolic links, and while very few (if any) of GFF's FTPs should require it, it won't hurt to have on.
Transfer files in ASCII mode: If sending text from Windows->Linux or the other way, enable this. If you're downloading binary data (like executables or MP3s) you'll want this off.

HTTP
Use HTTP/1.1: Unimportant for us--the default's fine.

SSH
Need SSH User/Pass: Not important for GFF FTPs, though you might need it elsewhere. This defines whether or not SSH connections need a user/pass, and is generally safe to leave on.

Once all that's done, hit Save twice (once in this window, the other in the Bookmarks manager), and then hit File > Options. You will see a lot of options here repeated from the bookmark we defined earlier--the bookmark overrides these, as these are just the default for when you do not connect by means of a bookmark. Define them as you will, as we are only going over the unique options.

View program: Program used when you hit "View" on a file. This can be left empty, generally.
Edit program: Program used when you hit "Edit" on a file. For GFF's FTPs, this is unimportant, as you will not likely ever edit things on another's server.
Startup directory: Similar to "Local Directory", just that it's where the program goes on startup.
Max log window size: The default's fine, but this is how many bytes of text the log window will show at a time.
Append file transfers: Leave this enabled.
Do one transfer at a time: Do not disable this when connecting to GFF FTPs! Most FTP owners only want you connecting once, and disabling this will probably earn you a ban.
Start file transfers: Disable this--this tells gFTP to not automatically start a new transfer that gets queued. You'll have to start them manually, but it stops the client from trying to download two things at once if you drag more into the queue after a transfer has begun.

Local Hosts
I really don't have a clue what this tab does, but I've not had need to use it to connect to GFF's FTPs. Someone care to help me figure out what the world this is for?

Alright, we're done. OK out to the main window, then hit Bookmarks, and find your newly created bookmark. Press it, and you'll connect to the FTP! Or at least try to--if it's busy, gFTP should do its thing and wait the time you told it to, then try again all on its own.

Guide: WS_FTP
This assumes the most recent version.

Once you've gotten the installer, run it, and let it do everything it needs to. I'd suggest against installing "Pre-Configured" sites, as for working on GFF, this is useless. Once again, Auto-Launching it at the end is wise.

Close the dialog that pops up, then hit Options > Program Options. In here, under General, enter some fake email address, or your real one if you want to give it out.

Now go to the Transfers section. Under Number of retries for failed transfers, I'd suggest changing this to 10 or something, just so it retries more than twice. Maximum number of concurrent transfers MUST be set to 1! If you do not, it will try to connect multiple times to the same server, and invariably get you banned. Number of parts used on multiple transfers should be 1 as well. I would also suggest against using Automatically resume transfers when application starts, as you may want to connect on your own.

SSL has some interesting settings, such as forcing a local port range (for firewall compatability, I'm thinking... someone should clarify this), and forcing a PORT IP. But you shouldn't need to mess with these much, if at all.

OK out of this, then go File > Connect...
Now you should see a folder hierarchy. Click on MySites, then hit the Create Site button to the right, and then give it a name. Hit Next. For Host Address, this would be something like site.dyndns.org. Hit Next. User ID and Password to enter you'll find under the FTP thread itself (in GFF). As the program states, "Very few FTP servers require the Account field", so leave it blank. Hit Next, once again.

Now you should see a Server Type dropdown menu. You can leave this as FTP, as I do not think any GFF servers use the other types. Though, keep this setting in mind if it is not working right. Port would be the number you see at the very end of an FTP URL, or you'll find it in the thread as well.

Now you can hit Finish, and be done with this. You are also able to connect now. File Transfers work in the same way as FlashFXP -- Drag & Drop. So you'd drag a file from the right pane to the left to download, vice versa to upload.

This client I do NOT reccomend, however. I never found any option to set a reconnect delay, or any sort of connection time delay, for that matter. But it's all a matter of choice, so have fun with them.

-----

At this point, you should be able to go about your business, though I must stress this: follow the FTP owner's rules. If you have a guide of your own for an alternative client, feel free to post it so we can keep them all in one area.

Happy FTPing.

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