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SmartFTP 1.0Product Website:
http://www.smartftp.com" TARGET="BLANK">SmartFTP
Price: Free
We're sorry to see the days of the DOS-based FTP client go down in ruins, but it has been followed up with a very powerful tool known as SmartFTP.
SmartFTP is totally free. Meaning you don't need to pay to use this program for as long as you'd like, or whenever you'd like. Not only is the program free, but it comes filled to the brim with many features that only programs you have to pay for come with. Cuing files, multiple connections at once, copy and pasting of FTP URLs with great ease - it's got them all.
The installation process of this program is started off with a very small (around 80kB) wizard you download from the SmartFTP website, which then asks you a few questions and then downloads and installs the actual SmartFTP client to your computer. Overall, installation only takes a minute or two if you have a cable or broadband connection, but it might take longer depending on your internet connection. After everything is all said and done in terms of installation, you're left with only 3 Megs less space on your drive, as the program only takes 3 Megs to install to your drive.
Upon installation of the program, SmartFTP greets you with a setup screen which asks you for things like an email address, and various other things such as your default download path where it will put things you downloaded to. This setup process really isn't the best for first time FTPers, as it has a lot of settings which one may not know what they do and risk disrupting the program from doing what you want it to.
Don't worry if you're not that great when it comes to the world of FTP. You can get by pretty easily with SmartFTP even if you don't go through all of the options during the setup process. Once you're settled in and you're ready to connect to your first FTP server, you'll be pleased to know that there are only three fields that you must fill in to connect to the remote server. Those fields include FTP address, user name, password, and sometimes a different port number other than 21 if told to do so by your host / FTP administrator (In most cases it's always going to be port 21). The main user interface is setup just like Internet Explorer is setup. All the fields that you need to fill in are located towards the top of the program, and once you've completed them all and they're all filled in, you simply hit "Enter" on your keyboard and SmartFTP will do the rest for you.
Once you're connected, you'll be even more pleased to find that SmartFTP works just like if you had two hard drives on your system and you wanted to get test.txt from one drive to another. Simply highlight the folder in the local folder, and click into the remote folder and paste the file in.
NOTE: If you do not see a "Local Browser" in your SmartFTP interface, you will have to open it manually. You can do so by simply clicking on the button that looks like a folder with a magnifying glass on top of it.
Reliability for SmartFTP is unbelievable. Personally, I've been using the program for about a year now and cannot recall one time when the program "made an illegal operating and must be shut down". Every 120 days the program will prompt you to download a new, more updated copy. You don't have to download the update, but it is recommended as there may be some minor bug fixes, new features, or even better, security fixes in each update.
Overall SmartFTP is a very solid and powerful FTP client. It's not the best for first timers, as the interface isn't that easy to navigate, but if you're someone that isn't afraid to poke around a program for a few minutes to get the feel of it, you won't be unhappy about downloading and trying SmartFTP as your FTP client.
SmartFTP was tested on the usual Athlon XP 1.4 Ghz system, with 256 Megs of ram, running Windows XP Professional via a remote desktop client. No performance issues were noticed while evaluating the program.
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