Comments on: Installing an FTP program

By: Jack Z

Jack Z — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:18:44 +0000

I use FileZilla too – excellent program!
Keep up the good work Cassie!
Jack Z´s last blog ..Canadian, Please

By: Cassie

Cassie — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:06:32 +0000

I agree completely Chris. Thanks for stopping by.

By: Chris Arkwright

Chris Arkwright — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:02:59 +0000

Filezilla is definitely the best, free, FTP client. Good call.

It has a ton of useful features, and each new release brings more FTP Yumminess.

By: John Hoff - WpBlogHost

John Hoff - WpBlogHost — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:20:50 +0000

When I have to upload a bunch of files, I’ll zip them up and upload just one file, then unzip them once they are uploaded. Could be a pain having to then move files to different directories once on the server, though, if they don’t all go in the same one.

FTP definitely is quicker and easier I suppose. I believe Filezilla allows for secured logins. That’s part of why it’s a great program.
John Hoff – WpBlogHost´s last blog ..Make Things Easy To Find On Your Site

By: Cassie

Cassie — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:10:06 +0000

@John – good to know. I can’t imagine using the control panel to upload files though. FTP makes it so fast! I had to edit a client’s files and upload a bunch through Hostgator control panel and it was torture.

By: John Hoff - WpBlogHost

John Hoff - WpBlogHost — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:33:57 +0000

FileZilla is probably the best free FTP program out there. For a paid FTP program, I like Ipswitch WS_FTP Pro, but there are tons of other good ones out there.

One thing to think about security-wise is that fact that there are people online watching and trying to catch unsecured usernames and passwords. I am part of the WP forums community and one way many people get their sites hacked is by some malicious jerk intercepting their FTP logins.

There are two alternatives to help protect yourself.

1. Login to your FTP account through a secure connection (your host will need to be able to allow for that)

2. Instead of using FTP to upload files, log into your web hosting control panel which should be a secured connection (i.e. https://... ). Use the upload and download function from there. Your hosting account should also include a zip and unzip function as well as a text editor which can edit pretty much any file.