|
Softpanorama
(slightly skeptical)
Open Source Software Educational Society |
May the
source be with you,
but remember the KISS principle ;-)
|
Softpanorama FTP Protocol and Clients Evaluation Page
As for the FTP servers WU-FTP seems to be the king of the hill among
free implementations.
For clients the main tendency is to incorporate FTP functionality
into a regular file manager or a regular WEB browser. But the most
revolutionary technology is to create FTP filesystem. The first vendor that
accomplish this was Southrivertech with its amazing
WebDrive
product that is known mainly via Novell rebranded free (for Netware and iFolder
users) Netdrive. That can be done in
several ways:
-
Using virtual FTP filesystem. This is the most
advanced and flexible capability. In this case you simply do not need a client:
all your programs work with the remote FTP server as if it is a local filesystem.
- Perform a NSLOOKUP for the FTP site,
e.g.
nslookup
ftp.microsoft.com
make a note of the IP address
- Edit the LMHOSTS file (in %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc)
- Add line
<ip address> MicrosoftFTP #PRE
e.g. 207.46.133.140 MicrosoftFTP
#PRE
- Save the file
- Open a CMD.EXE session. Enter command:
nbtstat -R
This purges and reloads the
name table cache
- Type command:
net view
\\MicrosoftFTP
You should see information on the site
- Now map a drive (to share data)
net use *
\\MicrosoftFTP\data /user:anonymous
- All done. It will pass a drive letter
for the connection
-
Using file managers with built-in FTP client
-
Command line or GUI-based
OFM file managers that traditionally
have built-in FTP clients, for example Midnight Commander (Unix), FAR or
Total Commander (Windows). Actually Total Commander has a pretty cool FTP
capabilities that are pretty competitive with commercial FTP clients.
-
Nautilus File Manager and, possibly, other
GNOME VFS based file
managers. GnomeVFS is a library that allows applications to transparently
access various types of filesystems through a uniform interface. GnomeVFS
modules include support for things such as WebDAV, ftp, local filesystem,
gzip, bzip2, cdda, and others.
-
Using "ftp client should be a browser extension" approach.
Filezilla is an example of free FTP client belonging to this category.
Some Java implementations of OFM can work as an applet in the browser Windows.
As for traditional command line clients (if you still need any ;-)
in Unix NCFTP might be not a bad idea. NCFTP
has almost everything you always wanted to see with ftp. Includes NcFTPPut and NcFTPGet,
which support FTP for shell scripts. Source code is available.
Clients for windows are discussed in a
separate page
Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov
Notes:
- Those pages are written by people for whom English is not a
native language. Some amount of grammar and spelling errors
should be expected.
- This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site. It
cannot replace the best teachers and
the
best books.
- The site contain some obsolete pages as it develops like a
living tree... Some links on older pages
are broken. Please
try to use Google, Open directory, etc. to find a replacement link
(see
HOWTO search the WEB for details).
We would appreciate if you can
mail us a correct link.
|
|
[Jan 28, 2008]
lftp 3.6.3
by Alexander V. Lukyanov
Most mirroring program like
wget support ftp
About: lftp is a sophisticated command line based file
transfer program. Supported protocols include FTP, HTTP, SFTP, and
FISH. It has a multithreaded design allowing you to issue and
execute multiple commands simultaneously or in the background. It
also features mirroring capabilities and will reconnect and continue
transfers in the event of a disconnection. Also, if you quit the
program while transfers are still in progress, it will switch to
nohup mode and finish the transfers in the background. Additional
protocols supported: FTP over HTTP proxy, HTTPS and FTP over SSL.
There are lots of tunable parameters, including rate limitation,
number of connections limitation and more.
Changes: The sftp:use-full-path setting was added. sftp
FSETSTAT is not used when it is not needed. The sftp:charset and
fish:charset settings were fixed. URL escapes are not decoded in
get/put when no URL schema is used. Counting of file removal errors
in mirror was fixed. A 2-byte buffer overflow when showing transfer
percents was fixed. A problem with incorrect port/host name in HTTP
requests was fixed. Some core dumps were fixed. Compilation on some
systems was fixed.
wget has similar functionality and is more versatile (can use
HTTP).
December 04 |
Linux.comNo matter what Linux distribution you are using, chances are you'll find more than one graphical FTP client in its repositories, but if you are looking for a powerful command-line FTP tool, your best bet is lftp. Of course, you can always use the good old ftp command, but lftp takes the task of managing files and directories using the FTP protocol to a new level. To see what I mean, let's use lftp to write a script that creates a local backup copy of a Web site.
To write the script, you need to know how to use lftp to connect to an FTP server and synchronize a remote directory with a local one. If your FTP server supports anonymous connections, you can connect to it using the simple command
lftp ftpsite. If the server requires a user name and password, the connection command would look like
lftp -u username,password ftpsite.
To synchronize a remote directory with a folder on your hard disk, lftp utilizes the mirror command. Used without switches, this command syncs the current local and remote directories. You can also specify explicitly the source and target directories:
mirror path/to/source_directory path/to/target_directory
The mirror command offers a comprehensive set of switches, which you can use to control the synchronization process. For example, used with the --delete switch, the mirror command deletes the files in the local folder that are not present in the remote directory, while the --only-newer option forces lftp to download only newer files. Another handy switch is --exclude; it allows you to specify which files and directories to skip during synchronization. And if you prefer to keep an eye on the syncing process, you can use the --verbose switch.
Typing all those switches every time you want to synchronize two directories can be a bit of a bother. Fortunately, lftp understands complex commands that can perform several actions in one fell swoop. All you have to do is to use the -e switch, so lftp stays connected and runs the specified commands:
lftp -u username,password -e "mirror --delete --only-newer --verbose path/to/source_directory path/to/target_directory" ftpsite
Using this command, lftp connects to the FTP server using the provided credentials, and then runs the command(s) in the quotes. You can save the entire command in a text file, then run it by pointing lftp to it using the -f switch:
lftp -f /home/user/ftpscript.txt
lftp has a few other clever tricks up its sleeve. The at switch can come in handy when you want to run the backup at a specific time. The following command, for example, runs at midnight:
lftp at 00:00 -u username,password -e "mirror --delete --only-newer --verbose path/to/source_directory path/to/target_directory" ftpsite &
Notice the ampersand, which sends the command to the background so you don't have to keep the terminal window open.
Now you know how to create local backup of files and directories stored on an FTP server. But how do you restore the data if disaster strikes? Quite easily, actually. All you have to do is to add the --reverse switch to the mirror command:
lftp -u username,password -e "mirror --reverse --delete --only-newer --verbose path/to/source_directory path/to/target_directory" ftpsite
As the name suggests, the switch reverses the source and target directories, so lftp uploads files from the local directory to the remote FTP server.
That's all there is to it. Check lftp's man pages to get an overview of lftp's other useful options, and start FTPing like a pro.
Dmitri Popov is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Russian, British, US, German, and Danish computer magazines.
BitKinex integrates the functionality of an innovative
FTP, SFTP and WebDAV client for Windows. In addition to features found
in other popular FTP programs (like support for the SSL/SSH, multipart and multithreaded
transfers, remote edit or FXP) our FTP client introduces several unique approaches
and solutions like:
wget has similar functionality and is more versatile (can use
HTTP).
I recently had to upload some content to a Web site,
and the only access available was via FTP. I needed an FTP client capable of
uploading a directory structure recursively. I found what I needed in an application
called NcFTP.
I started by looking into Mozilla Firefox, but to my surprise, Firefox supports
only FTP downloads, not uploads. Mozilla, on the other hand, does support uploads,
but it can upload only one file at a time.
Next, I turned to command-line FTP clients. Again, the standard FTP command
doesn't support recursive directory upload. Fortunately, many graphical and
command-line FTP clients do, including
NcFTP, yafc, and
LFTP. I picked NcFTP.
After installing the software, connect to your host anonymously by entering
the ncftp command followed by the hostname:
ncftp ftp.somedomain.com
or if you need to log in with a valid username, use the -u and
-p parameters:
ncftp -u username -p password ftp.somedomain.com
A successful connection puts you in an NcFTP shell. If you've used the standard
FTP command before, you should feel right at home here. I'll presume you're
familiar with basic FTP commands such as dir and cd.
You can use the lls and the lcd commands to list and
navigate the local working directory.
NcFTP supports autocompletion for both commands and filenames. For instance,
you can type in the first few characters of a filename and then press Tab to
fill in the rest of the name automatically.
Recall that my main goal was to upload a directory structure. Use the
put -R command to do a recursive directory upload:
ncftp /path > put -R somedir
Standard FTP also supports a put command, but it's limited to
uploading single files.
Similarly, you can download a directory recursively using the NcFTP
get -R command:
ncftp /path > get -R somedir
More handy features
If you FTP to the same sites regularly, you can save time by using NcFTP's
bookmark feature. Bookmarks store the connection information, including the
username, the password, the hostname, and the target directory location.
To create a bookmark on a particular directory location, first navigate to
that directory and then enter the bookmark command followed by a name to identify
the bookmark. For example, type these commands to bookmark /path/somedir and
name it topsecret:
ncftp /path > cd somedir
ncftp /path/somedir > bookmark topsecret
A bookmark editor lets you open, edit, delete, replicate, and add bookmarks.
Invoke the editor by entering the bookmarks command with no parameters:
ncftp /path > bookmarks
Once you create a bookmark, you can connect to the corresponding host and
directory quickly by using the bookmark name. Login is automatic because the
bookmark stores the username and password.
For instance, you can connect using a bookmark named topsecret by entering
this command in the Linux shell:
ncftp topsecret
Alternatively, you can open a connection while inside the NcFTP shell:
ncftp> open topsecret
Wrapping it up
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was once a commonly used method for transferring
files over the Internet, but recent security concerns have lessened its use
in favor of the more secure SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or Secure Copy
(SCP). Nevertheless, FTP may be the only access available to you on occasion.
NcFTP is loaded with useful features. I've touched on only the basics. If
you ever require an FTP client more powerful than the standard FTP command,
consider NcFTP.
Net::FTPServer is a full-featured,
secure, extensible, and highly configurable FTP server which can serve files
from a standard file system or a relational database. It is written in Perl,
which provides natural protection against buffer overflows. It has feature parity
with popular C-based servers such as wu-ftpd. The server offers virtual hosts
(IP-based and experimental IP-less). It is configurable in Perl, for both small
Perl "hacks" in the configuration file all the way up to complete server "personalities".
It supports the latest RFCs and Internet Drafts. Authentication may be done
through /etc/passwd, PAM or an authentication plug-in. Resource limits are supported.
The server may run standalone or from inetd. chroot() jails are supported along
with sophisticated programmable access control rules. All aspects of server
use and configuration are comprehensively documented in a manual running to
some 50 pages.
gFTP Official Homepage
by
Brian Masney
About: gFTP is a multithreaded FTP client for X Windows written using
GTK+. It features simultaneous downloads, resuming of interrupted file transfers,
FTP, HTTP, and SSH protocols, file transfer queues, downloading of entire directories,
FTP and HTTP proxy support, remote directory caching, passive and non-passive
file transfers, drag-n-drop support, a very nice connection manager, and more.
Changes: Lots of small bug fixes and translations updates.
"A few weeks ago I wrote an article on how to automate FTP via the .netrc
file. ... Because the volume of mail was so high I decided to write a second
part to the article to detail two other ways to automate FTP. ...for more complex
tasks, or tasks needing greater error checking and flexibility you will probably
want to use one of the methods outlined below."
web-FTP is a lightweight Perl/CGI FTP client that can provide quick, easy, and
(with an SSL-enhanced Web server) more secure access to your FTP server. Designed
with file management in mind, it supports uploads, downloads, and all the usual
tasks. No spool directories are used; file transfers are relayed directly from
the server to the client and vice versa. It can also serve as an FTP client,
allowing FTP access to clients behind a firewall.
Changes: A simple file editor and viewer, simple permissions editing,
a fix for a bug that made the whole file get cached before downloading (bad
for large files), and other numerous bugfixes.
"ProFTPd is a nice alternative to the wu-ftpd server, which normally
ships as the default FTP server with Linux. The thing I enjoy about ProFTPd
is the simple configuration file (/etc/proftpd.conf) that allows you to fully
customize your FTP server."
Linux Today - New Proftpd Guide by Vince
"Well today I decided to write up a guide on
proftpd installation and configuration,
after answering many questions on mailing lists, I decided that it was time
for a guide."
For a full guide listing, goto the Lansystems.com
Howto
page.
WebDrive FTP Client
Software by RiverFront Software -- a revolutionary FTP client. Highly recommended.
Shareware $39.
WebDrive is a Windows 95/98 FTP
software client that allows you to map an Internet FTP site to a local
drive utilizing the standard FTP protocol. This enables you to connect to an
FTP site and perform familiar file operations like copy, xcopy, and directory
functions with the Windows explorer, a DOS box, or any other application
like Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. WebDrive instantly FTP enables any application
that reads or writes files by allowing the application to read files from or
write files to the FTP site.
Until now, in order to upload or download
files from an FTP site, you needed to run a client FTP utility that presented
a user interface to manually select the files to transfer. The WebDrive FTP
client makes the FTP site an extension of the file system which enables you
to use any application to upload or download files to the FTP site transparently.
For more details,
click here
Open directory:
Clients- FTP
Open directory:
Servers- FTP
Linux.DaveCentral.com
FTP Shareware, Freeware, Demos and Betas
DaveCentral Windows
FTP - Clients, Page 1
THE
FREEWARE PUBLISHING SITE FTP CLIENTS
SoftSeek.com - Download Managers, Shareware and Freeware
TUCOWS Search of FTP
Jumbo: FTP Clients
FileFarm:
FTP Clients
Software
Blast: FTP Clients
FTP Clients by Rating
- CWSApps
FAQs
(Mar 20, 2000, 06:45 UTC) (Posted by
marty) (0 talkbacks posted) (1211 reads)
"ProFTPd is a nice alternative to the wu-ftpd server, which normally ships as the
default FTP server with Linux. The thing I enjoy about ProFTPd is the simple configuration
file (/etc/proftpd.conf) that allows you to fully customize your FTP server."
About ProFTPD --
GNU ftpd daemon
WU-ftpd
NcFTPd Resource
Center -- NcFTPd is a high-performance File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) server for UNIX systems, designed especially for high-traffic sites and internet
service providers.
RiverFront Software
- Developers of WebDrive FTP Software
FTP servers for Win95/NT
NFTP - Text-mode FTP client
for OS/2, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, SPARC Solaris, and BeOS Intel. Offers many keystroke
shortcuts for frequently-used commands. Quasi-GUI version available for OS/2.
IglooFTP
- FTP client for Linux which makes full use of the GTK+ library. Intuitive for novices
to learn and use, yet offers features such as drag and drop, URL clipboard monitoring,
and remote directory caching.
siteupdater
--Crystal SiteUpdater maintains files
and folders on your site, by using conventional FTP. It transfers new or updated
files, and also recreates entire folder structures on the remote site, removes old
files and old folder
WebDrive - A network
redirector for Windows that makes an FTP site look like a network drive. This provides
access to FTP servers from any application in Windows.
WholeSite FTP
- FTP tool designed for web publishing. Updates a site with a single click, sending
only new or modified files. Public domain software, source code is available.
Uploader
- Simple FTP uploading utility designed for quick updates of web sites. Supports
drag-and-drop. No download support.
NetLoad - Directory mirroring
program. Automatically updates a directory on an FTP server to match the local directory,
including new files, modified files, and deleted files.
Copyright © 1996-2007 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov.
www.softpanorama.org was
created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP)
in the author free time.
Submit
comments This document is an industrial compilation designed and created
exclusively for educational use and is placed under the copyright of the
Open Content License(OPL).
Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made
for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
Standard disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions presented on
this web page are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily
reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other
organization the author may be associated with. We do not warrant the correctness
of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose.
Bullet Proof FTP -- designed specifically to keep your transfers flowing despite
weak links but cannot beat Net Vampire. For FTP looks like obsolete as
WebDrive FTP solved all this problems
in a more elegant way.
***** Net
Vampire -- From: Alex Shovkoplyas This program is not a simple FTP client --
it is fully automatic FTP and HTTP file downloader. It will start at the time you
specify and make as many attempts to download the file as you request. Net Vampire
resumes broken connections and restarts downloads at the current position for both
FTP and Web servers. To start file retrieval, just drag and drop a URL from your
browser. Net Vampire provides flexible job scheduling, dialup control and support
for many proxy types, including Socks. You can use multiple downloading locations
for the file and switch among them on the fly. In addition to performing real-time
testing, Net Vampire collects long-term site statistics, which further helps you
to choose the best file location. A built-in search engine can find files on both
FTP and HTTP servers. Net Vampire can list FTP directories and extract links from
the downloaded HTML pages. All found links can be added to the main Job List. On
job completion, Net Vampire can run a virus checker, open the received file, disconnect
the modem, or shut down the computer. A detailed session log, data flow histogram,
and many configurable options make download troubleshooting easier.
Most mirroring
program like wget
support ftp
[Jan 28, 2008]
lftp 3.6.3
by Alexander V. Lukyanov
About: lftp is a sophisticated command line based file
transfer program. Supported protocols include FTP, HTTP, SFTP, and
FISH. It has a multithreaded design allowing you to issue and
execute multiple commands simultaneously or in the background. It
also features mirroring capabilities and will reconnect and continue
transfers in the event of a disconnection. Also, if you quit the
program while transfers are still in progress, it will switch to
nohup mode and finish the transfers in the background. Additional
protocols supported: FTP over HTTP proxy, HTTPS and FTP over SSL.
There are lots of tunable parameters, including rate limitation,
number of connections limitation and more.
Changes: The sftp:use-full-path setting was added. sftp
FSETSTAT is not used when it is not needed. The sftp:charset and
fish:charset settings were fixed. URL escapes are not decoded in
get/put when no URL schema is used. Counting of file removal errors
in mirror was fixed. A 2-byte buffer overflow when showing transfer
percents was fixed. A problem with incorrect port/host name in HTTP
requests was fixed. Some core dumps were fixed. Compilation on some
systems was fixed.
Catfood Software
- Catfood FTP
Catfood FTP is a 32-bit console application for Windows 95, 98 and NT.
CFTP is not interactive, it just uploads and downloads files. File type
is determined automatically so your HTML is sent in ACSII mode and you images
in BINARY.
|
The server must be specified using the -s switch (i.e. "-s
ftp.myhost.com"). All other switches are optional.
|
|
Specify a local path using -l. This path may be
absolute or relative. CFTP will recurse all subfolders. The default local
path is the current folder.
|
Specify the remote path using -r. This can also be absolute
or relative. Be careful using an absolute path as the folder you are logged
in to is probably not at the root of the remote filesystem. The default
is the remote log in folder.
|
Use -u and -p to specify your username and password.
The default is anonymous transfer.
|
Finally, to download rather than upload specify -g.
|
FTPmail-
FTP by email
Copyright © 1996-2007 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov.
www.softpanorama.org was
created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP)
in the author free time.
Submit
comments This document is an industrial compilation designed and created
exclusively for educational use and is placed under the copyright of the
Open Content License(OPL).
Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made
for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
Standard disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions presented on
this web page are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily
reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other
organization the author may be associated with. We do not warrant the correctness
of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose.
Last Modified:
February 28, 2008
