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FTP Client Recommendations?
Doug Moreen asks: "
I'm a Linux user who is trying to stop using Windows forever. The sole reason I'm using Windows is for the ftp program I'm using, GoZilla, which is really useful for downloading new distributions. What I'm looking for is a Linux ftp program that does the following; download resume, search for other-faster download sites with less latency, and auto-reconnect if disconnected. The reason I need this is due to the crummy phone lines where I live. Yeah I know about the newer broadband methods ISPs are now offering, however, most of these services are either are flaky, or not available in my area. I do have a dedicated phone line that I don't mind being connected to the Internet. I also don't mind having the download taking a couple of days. So guys, what should I use? What is the URL for this program? Help me to kill windows forever!"
tkFTP has worked well for me --> it is fast, resumes downloads (how come netscape doesn't do that??), and will do simultaneous downloads. Check the homepage at: http://a.trevano.ch/~jermini/tkftp/
Another alternative is a light perl script, fletch, available from http://vipul.net/perl/, that does both HTTP and FTP, and is optimized for bad bandwidth environments. I have been using it for some days and I am addicted to its command line interface and succinct progress reporting features.
ncftp also lets you "ls with impunity." ncftp also lets you reformat the ls using different flags without ls'ing on the server, so if you do "ls -lrt" the first time you can still do "ls -C" the next time instantaneously.
ncftp *is* nice. well, at least I really thought so until I tried lftp. wow!
I tried gFTP for awhile. It's pretty neat, but a little annoying. It tries to connect to an FTP server multiple times so you can download many things at the same time. I couldn't find out any way to disable this, and my friend got annoyed when I was all three users out of a total of three allowed (not to mention sucking up all his bandwith). So I switched to ncftp, which is pretty good since it can do batch downloads as well as delayed downloads (you can set the time and date for something to download). I tried doing this type of delayed download by downloading a directory, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe I just used the wrong syntax.
There are two that I know of that try to emulate those features of their Windows counterpart:
:)
Getleft - Three guesses as to what software their modeling after
DPS-FTP - DPS-FTP is an FTP client whose interface is loosely based on that of Bulletproof FTP. It has a transfer queue which allows multiple files from multiple directories on multiple sites to be uploaded and downloaded, in any order, and can automatically resume partially transferred files, among other features.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
PS: The Wine site has a database for tested applications, but GoZilla wasn't listed, so I can't tell you what to expect.
Your Brain + EEG + LEGO Robots = Brainstorms
You really should try Igloo FTP. I was in the same situation like you, came from Windows and wanted to get independent. The Igloo FTP client was one of my steps towards freedom.
(Nowadays i do no longer use it, I mostly just use the integrated KDE browser).
* * * - Don't throw your PC out of the window, throw Windows out of your PC! * * *
I'm having the same problems. The only thing keeping me back from running Linux 24/7 is a good resuming ftp client and Blizzard's Diablo.
Anyway, I was attempting to upgrade my distro (RH5.2) and was looking for a gtk+ upgrade. I noticed gFTP on the gtk site at the time. I suppose it's kinda like BulletProof FTP (which I use in Windows), but I don't know. I couldn't compile it because my libraries are so dated.
Hope it helps to break your bad habit.
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Ping? PONG!
If you like ncftp, you might want to give lftp a look. It has a lot of the same capabilites ncftp has, but it a bit more lightweight. It's coded w/ the intent of making the user experience as responsive as possible. That means it aggressively caches directory listings (so you can ls all day w/ impunity). Stuff like that....
wget is a gpl'ed program thats extremely stable and reliable. Its able to download websites and ftp sites, using proxies if necessary as well as resume file transfers, download directories and even follow links from websites across hosts.
While it won't look for the fastest host from multiple connections and its commandline based, I've found it to be faster at downloading from some sites that drop the occasional packet as you can set the transfer timeout to low values which will rekickstart the transfer again before you get the boot. (I usually use a timeout of 30 seconds)
from Freshmeat.net:
Downloader for X is a tool for downloading files from the Internet via both HTTP and FTP with a powerful but userfriendly interface. It supports reconnecting and resuming on connection timeouts, has a download queue for multiple files, support for simultaneous downloads, and many other features for powerful downloading
I've used it and I like it. It's a lot like GetRight and Gozilla. link.
IglooFTP is a pretty snazzy program which does queue transfers resumes etc. gftp is pretty cool as well and is GNU I believe. lftp is good, apparently does background transfers, but is a console-based program. Check http://www.freshmeat.net for the above programs.
ncftp is sweet. I like the fact that it doesn't have a GUI. It has nice features like tab completion, resume downloads, background jobs, small memory footprint, comes with most installs of Unix, can be used over telnet, ... One downfall is the interface is a little confusing but after a couple of minutes it was breeze to use.