FTP Client

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Can someone suggest a good FTP client for Windows? I used to use Filezilla but I am seeing may reports of malware being bundled with the installer.

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Try WinSCP here:
https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

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Download filezilla here without bundled garbage

https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?show_all=1

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Hi. Well it maybe depends what do you expect from FTP client? I would definitely recommend Total Commander.
– You can store your connections.
– You can invoke FTP by pressing CTRL+F

Simple interface, nothing unnescessary, tons of functions. This program is available for decades and still functional and same. No updates, no bugs, no problems. Total Commander is my “tool for everything”. You can use shareware version which is free – it takes one more click than payed version to start this shareware version In March 2020 the final release was… emm.. released.

I purchased long time ago lifetime license with my friend (3 licenses for approx 100 USD).
Ghisler – Total Commander

PS – there is still 16-bit bersion available for download

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For my light FTP needs I use Filezilla and Total Commander. I too have been using TC since the 90s as my file manager. It just works and is still actively developed. I use it so much that I’ve paid for 3 copies over the years out of guilt for paying so little for so much.  By the way, the March release isn’t the “final” version. It’s the final release of the then-current beta cycle.

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doriel

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I’ve had good luck with CyberDuck on Windows and Mac.

On Mac, Transmit is also excellent.

Nathan Parker

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Thanks all for the responses, especially for the info on where to find a clean filezilla installer.

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Another vote for WinSCP here!

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I would just like to put this link here for reference

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/filezillas-use-of-bundled-offers-sparks-outrage-from-users/

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It all depends on what one means with “FTP client”.

For the classic FTP protocol (not encrypted) there is always the http://ftp.exe command line tool bundled with Windows since NT 3.10 in 1993 and WfW 3.11 32 bit TCP/IP around that time. And also the ftp: URL support in many web browsers.

For the SSL/TLS protected variant of the classic FTP protocol (ftps:), there is support in some web browsers and in classic command line tools such as Curl.

For the file transfer extension to the SSH protocol (sftp) there is definitely the WinSCP gui for the Putty SSH tools and the matching the pscp command line tool.

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doriel

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JohnFDoe wrote:

command line tool

… which unfortunately doesn’t support SSL/TLS in any version I can easily find, same as the traditional ftp command on Unix/Linux. (Well, they’re both descendants of 4.2BSD’s “ftp” command I believe…)

Possible replacement with ftps might be lftp (https://lftp.tech/ but no Windows binaries there).

Also, PowerShell can apparently do FTP several ways, and at least by calling System.Net.WebClient you can get TLS support too.

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doriel

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That is certainly true, but it ts like using telnet from command line. It works, but thats just basic operation. On every launch you must write all commands again, you cannot repeat with up/down arrows on a new instance of the program (you cannot store connections). Its a guru-like approach.
I can certainly create cmd/bat file, but its more elegant to have some solid UI app to do that. Just my opinion.

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HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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Traditionally, some of the graphical clients were just frontends to the old ftp command.

As in you do something in the user interface, and it writes the commands and sends them for you.

At least one of those, way back in the 90s, used to have a facility in the settings for choosing which executable file to use as the “actual” ftp client.

doriel wrote:

I can certainly create cmd/bat file, but its more elegant to have some solid UI app to do that.

Oh yes, I think that old thing also had an utility for saving your issued ftp commands so you could feed them back in later, either through STDIN, or in a command-list file if the ftp command supports it. (The usual one in Windows does, with the -s switch).

Now if I just remembered what that UI application’s name was and if it ran on Windows or something else…

A funny side effect of it was that you could in some situations make it use “rsh otherhost ftp” as the command, so you could transfer stuff between two remote computers using a local graphical client. Occasionally useful back when all I had at home was a v.32bis modem… or baseline GSM mobile data… oh well, 90s… also rsh was quickly replaced by ssh anyway and…

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doriel

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Traditionally, some of the graphical clients were just frontends to the old ftp command.

I think this is still true. At least high probable. UI is just graphical interface, communication is probably done by ftp executable itself.
Same with the remote connection (mstsc and “remote desktop app” – two different UIs invoke the same command on the background).

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HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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