In order to transfer files you must have a FTP client. Yes, of course, you can use your browser and now - by means the latest versions - you can also upload files. However if you transfer many files, you need a specific client. The most used FTP clients are WS-Ftp and CuteFtp. These client are shareware, so after a trial period you have to register your copy of these programs. Now I'm going to show CuteFtp, a very used FTP client (You can download it at Globalscape Inc. or you can find it at several sites such as Softseek.com). This is CuteFtp 
Let's see the most important features: 
- Site Manager (F4) - Here you can define used sites
- Settings - Here you can configure CuteFtp.
- Transfer type - Here you can define how files have to be transferred.
Site Manager 
Here you can handle your sites listing. A kind of bookmarks. Let's see how to edit a site, say Wowarea. Click on 'Edit site': 
- Site Label - here you can specify a name, that will identify the item inside of the Site Manager database.
- Initial Remote Directory - here you can define the initial remote directory for each site.
- Host Type - here you can specify the host type: Unix, MVS, VMS and so on. I suggest Auto-Detect.
- Host Address - here you have to define the full internet domain name of the remote FTP site you wish to connect to.
- Initial Local Directory - here you can define the initial local directory for each specified site.
- User ID - your user id.
- Password - your password
- Port - usually 21, but you can change it when a site use a different port.
- Login type - usually anonymous, but you can change it. If you have an account to a FTP site, you have to use 'normal' instead of 'anonymous'.
- Transfer type - I suggest you Auto-Detect.
Transfer type You can specify ASCII mode, BINARY mode or AUTO mode. When you specify AUTO mode, CuteFtp will understand by itself how files have to be transferred. When you transfer HTML files or CGI scripts for example you should use ASCII mode, but when you transfer programs you should use BINARY mode. I suggest AUTO mode, but you have to check for files unknown to CuteFtp. In order to check these files look at the 'Transfer type' item on the above window; click there and you will get this window: 
If you are transferring say, a Perl script, its extension will be '.pl'. As you can see that extension is not defined here, so you should switch AUTO to ASCII mode. Now click on 'Settings' and let's see 'General' and 'Advanced' menus. General 
Here you have to define: - Your Mail Address - when you connect via anonymous FTP you should specify your email address as password.
- Your Default Download Directory - the folder where files will be stored.
- Your Text files Viewer - here you can specify which program to use for viewing text files (for example notepad).
- Your Log File - here you can specify the filename to optionally record, as a text file, the FTP commands, server responses, and transfers to file.
- Default Retry - here you can specify how many time should CuteFTP attempt to connect to a server. Helpful for connecting to busy sites.
- Retry Delay - here you can specify with what intervals, should CuteFTP attempt to connect to a server.
- Start with - here you can specify what CuteFtp has to do as a first thing.
Advanced 
Here you can: - Auto-refresh remote dir - If this switch is ON, CuteFTP will reload directory listing from the server after every file management operation (e.g. rename, delete, etc.). I suggest you to keep this switch on, however, when you are connected to busy sites and you are handling huge directories, you could switch auto-refresh OFF. In fact when you are sure about what you are doing, you could save connection time by switching auto-refresh OFF. You could switch auto-refresh ON when you have finished and you want to check files you have handled.
- Double-Click Action - here you can choose the action you would when you double-click on a file name.
Session menu 
Hre you can: - Spawn Session - you can launch another CuteFtp. For example you can connect to two sites at the same time.
- Add to Database - you can add a new item to Site Manager database.
- Save Local/Remote Path - you can save current local or remote path to the selected item on the Site Manager database.
Here you can Add and Edit bookmarks. 
Here there are a few of commands. However you can use command by means of the above menu or by double clicking or by pressing the right button of your mouse. Besides you can define your customized commands (for example commands not listed here). For example you could define the chmod command so: 'SITE CHMOD =rwx myfile.cgi'. 
Here you can define how files have to be listed (for example Long listing). 
Here you can search file names and descriptions in the current directory. Beside you can use filters to show file listing. 
Just to customize windows. 
This is the CuteFtp help menu. |