Whats a good ftp program thats free? dont need ot do anything complicated, just something to upload/download some files.

Filezilla.

This.

I like WinSCP (Windows) or Cyberduck (Mac).

Whatever happened with dropbox? Wasn't it supposed to be the next best ftp?

I also use Filezilla, and their server version

+1

Huh? I use Dropbox, but it's not supposed to be an FTP client or replacement or whatever. It's just an online syncing tool (think SyncToy but through the internet instead of physical mediums).

Anyways, I'll add +1 for FileZilla. I use WinSCP for work because, well, they use SCP rather than FTP. I find it kinda slow/clunky, though, and I'd be using FileZilla if it supported SCP.

FileZilla.

Oh. I was under the impression that dropbox was a filehosting type of gig.

+10

Well, it is insofar as you can let other people download files in your sync folder (and you can use it as an online storage vault for yuor files), but you can't access it via FTP nor is there an Dropbox-sponsored FTP client or whatever.

WinSCP > All

I can't stand FileZilla, and WinSCP is rather fast. Any speed issues you have are probably related to the fact that it was using SCP which is inherently slower than FTP as a protocol (it's encrypting after all).

I had nothing but trouble when I used WinSCP. That's why I use FileZilla now.

For most people, the up bandwidth on their connection is the bottleneck, not the client or protocol.

When I say slow I don't mean slow in uploading (which would clearly be bandwith-related), I mean it's unresponsive. Like, when I open a folder LOCALLY (not on the remote server), there's like a half-second delay for apparently no reason (whereas explorer and FileZilla and every other program on the computer doesn't have a problem traversing the filesystem). On the remote server, the delay is even longer (up to a second) -- some of that is attributed to having to fetch a directory listing, but it shouldn't take that long. It also becomes "unresponsive" (Not Responding in windows) when logging in for a brief period of time. And then there are just some other little quirks like how if I multiple-select files I can't deselect them just by clicking an unselected file (which is standard Explorer behavior).

CM is right about SCP taking longer than FTP, but for whatever reason when I run WinSCP even the FTP is more sluggish (per my description above) than using FileZilla (or even the FireFTP extension in firefox, which itself is pretty clunky).

WS_FTP is what I've always used in the past. You can probably still find the free version too.

I usually use WinSCP just because I only use SFTP and SCP, however for super convenience I use ExpanDrive since it mounts the remote drive AND is fairly good at keeping the connection persistent and fast.

Last time I used WS_FTP (which was a few years ago) it left little anoying log-files wherever you uploaded a file. Does it still do that?

You can turn them off but yeah.. I hated WS_FTP but that's me

The noises used to annoy me when I was wearing my (no volume adjustment) headset. It does the job though? Filezilla is probably better, though never used it so wouldn't know!