Starksoft: FreeFTP Help

Starksoft FreeFTP Help

Make a Connection
Download Files and Directory Trees
Upload Files and Directory Trees
Change or View Remote Properties (CHMOD)
Encrypt or Decrypt Files with GnuPG
Manage your FTP Server Profiles
Edit Files Directly on Server with the Editor Tab
Configure Proxy Settings
Configure OpenPGP
Issue Custom Commands Using the Command Tab

Make a Connection

To make a new connection to an FTP server simply type in the FTP server or ip address in the application address bar. Press the 'Connect' button or press the 'Enter' key on your keyboard to initiate the connection. The first time you create a new connection, the Profile window will appear asking for any additional settings you might like to provide. Your new connection's profile will automatically be saved by FreeFTP.

The Profile window will automatically appear for all new profiles before the application connects to the FTP server. This window allows you to setup the specifics about the FTP connection such as the username, password, compression, and security options.

The Server and User section is the second section group on the Profile Window. By default, the application will always default to the FTP Anonymous User login unless you specify a different username and password. In addition, the port number as well as the server name can be changed on the window. Finally, if you would like Starksoft FreeFTP to store your password using a strong encryption algorithm, check the 'Save Password' box. This will save time when you connect to the FTP Server in the future. You password along with all your FTP profile information is saved in your Windows local application settings.

The Connection / Transfer section is the third section group on the Profile window. In this section you can specify if the connection should use encryption (FTP over SSL or FTPS for short), zlib compression, as well as the default transfer type (either Binary or Ascii), the transfer mode (either Active mode or Passive Mode), and automatic file integrity checking (CRC32, SHA2, or MD5). If these options seem foreign to you don't worry. Many FTP servers do not support encryption, compression or file integrity checks.

Passive Mode is the most common FTP mode and works best behind firewalls. If your FTP server supports zlib compression you can speed up your data transfers using server data compression on uploads and downloads. If you want to verify that you have the exact same file after upload or dowloading, choose a File Integrity Check option if your FTP server supports it. The three options available to you are CRC32, SHA1, and MD5. After each file is uploaded or downloaded, Starksoft FreeFTP will ask the server to generate a hash of the file and compare it to your local hash copy. If they do not match, the transferred file is deleted and an error message will appear in the Dialog screen.

Bandwidth Thottling is the fourth section on the Profile window. If you would like to slow down or 'throttle' your data connection to a specific FTP server, enter the Maximum Upload and/or Maximum Download speed allowed in Kilobytes per second. This setting will prevent you from saturating your network connection if you are downloading large amounts of data and time is not as important as keeping your network connection open for other uses. Bandwidth throttling settings are specific to a single profile and can be set independently of other profiles. If you do not specify a value, Starksoft FreeFTP will transfer files at the maximum speed allowed by your network connection and the remote FTP server.

Intital Directories is the fifth and final section on the Profile window. Use this setting to specify the intitial directory you would like be viewing on your local machine as well as the remote FTP directory. The setting can make it easier to upload and download files from frequently used directories. You will not have to drill down into the tree view each time you make a connection to the remote FTP server. The Local Directory can be either typed in or choose the local directory by pressing the eclipse (...) button. The Remote Directory must be typed in with a leading directory slash. For example "/pub" is acceptable but "pub" is not.

Finally, test your connection by pressing the "Test Connection" button. This will let you know if the connection is successful.

If the connection is successful, press the "Connect" button to open your new connection and begin transfering files.

Download Files and Directory Trees

Once your connection is open, downloading files or directory trees is easy. Simply select the items (files and/or directories) you would like to download and then right mouse click the the menu item 'Download'. Alternatively you can download a file by pressing the download arrow button located between the local and remote file panes.

To download a directory tree you can right mouse click the tree node and then select 'Download' to initiate the transfer.

To download multiple files and/or directory trees, select the items to download in the remote file grid and then right mouse click the menu item 'Download' to initiate the transfer.

Upload Files and Directory Trees

Once your connection is open, uploading files or directory trees is easy. Simply select the items (files and/or directories) you would like to upload and then right mouse click the the menu item 'Upload'. Alternatively you can upload a file by pressing the download arrow button located between the local and remote file panes.

To upload a directory tree you can right mouse click the tree node and then select 'Upload' to initiate the transfer.

To upload multiple files and/or directory trees, select the items to upload in the remote file grid and then right mouse click the menu item 'Upload' to initiate the transfer.

Encrypt or Decrypt Files with GnuPG

Once GnuPG is installed on your machine and your keys have been imported or created, Starksoft FreeFTP can easily encrypt or decrypt any local file. Simple select the file or files you would like to encrypt or decrypt and right mouse click and select either 'Encrypt' or 'Decrypt'. The action status of each file is shown in the Dialog window.

When encrypting data, select the key you would like to use. The key list is read directly from the keys registered with GnuPG. Press the 'OK' button to begin the encryption process.

Change or View Remote Properties (CHMOD)

The properties of the remote files and directories can be changed by select the items you would like to change. You can change more than one item at a time by selecting multiple items in the remote grid view.

To change a single file properties, select a remote file and click the right mouse button to select 'Properties'.

You can change the name, date/time, as well as the CHMOD permissions of the file or directory. To change the CHMOD settings, check or uncheck the Read, Write and Execute permissions for the various permission groups. Notice that the octal CHMOD Value will also change reflecting your selection.

Finally, the size of the selected item in bytes and kilobytes as the remote server reports them is also displayed on this window.

When you have made all the changes you would like to make, press the OK button to send your changes to the remote FTP server.

To change the mode of multiple files and/or directories simply select the items to change in the remote grid view and right mouse click 'Properties'.

Select the new CHMOD permission values and then press the 'OK' button to update the items on the remote FTP server. Notice that the total size of the items in bytes is also shown on this dialog window.

Manage your FTP Server Profiles

Profiles: A list of the stored FTP server profiles.

Add Profile Link: Adds a new profile to the profile list.

Delete Profile Link: Deletes the current selected profile from the profile list.

Profile Name: Name of the profile. This can me any name you choose.

Host Address / Name: Host name or IP address of the FTP server.

Port: Port number to connect to the FTP server on. The default is port 21.

User Name: User name of the account that is used to login the FTP server.

Password: Password for specified user. This password is encrypted if the Save Password option is selected.

Anonymous User: Select the checkbox to prefill the username and password for an anonymous FTP connection.

Save Password: Select the checkbox to save the password using triple DES encryption.

Keep Alive: Select the checkbox if you want NOOP operations to be sent every 60 seconds to keep the FTP connection alive as long as possible.

File Transfer Type: Select the initial transfer type for the FTP connection.

Transfer Mode: Select the initial transfer mode for the FTP connection.

Local Directory: Specify a local path for the application to navigate to when after the connection is made.

Remote Directory: Specify a remote path for the application to navigate to when after the connection is made.

Test Connection Button: Use this button to test the connection to the FTP server.

Edit Files Directly on Server with the Editor Tab

View, edit, and update remote FTP server files directly in memory. Save the steps of downloading, editing, saving, and then uploading text files back to the server. The built-in editor allow for fast and easy updates directly to the FTP server files. Simple select the remote file you would like to edit, right mouse click 'Edit', make any changes, and press the save icon in the Editor tab.

Press the 'Save' icon to save any file edits back to the remote FTP server. The built-in text editor also supports cut and paste, undo, and copy to clipboard operations. The filename and status of the file is show at the bottom of the edit window. If the save fails, a 'Failure' status is show, otherwise a 'Saved' status is show.

Configure Proxy Settings

The Starksoft FreeFTP application supports several popular proxy server protocols. If you would like to use the Starksoft FreeFTP application through a proxy, select the type of proxy you would like to use on this window. Changes to the proxy settlings will affect all FTP connections.

Proxy Protocol: Choose between the HTTP, and various SOCKS protocols.

Proxy Host: The host name or ip addres of the proxy server.

Proxy Port: The port number of the proxy server. The default value is set when choosing the protocol but can be overriden.

Proxy User Name: The optional user name for a SOCKS proxy connection.

Proxy Password: The optional password for a SOCKS v5 proxy connection.

Configure OpenPGP

Starksoft FreeFTP supports direct integration with the opensource PGP compatible application called GnuPG. If you install GnuPG using the Windows Installation, Starksoft FreeFTP will find the GnuPG application automatically. All you have to do is set up your keys and you are ready to start encrypting and decrypting files using PGP.

The Starksoft FreeFTP is integrated with the GnuPG OpenPGP executable via IO Streaming. The OpenPGP Setting window is used to specify the location of the GPG.EXE executable file and the output type desired. GnuPG supports two types of output formats for encrypted files:

ASCII Armor: encypt data then encode that data in an ascii armor encoding pattern so that it can be treated as text data or a text file

Binary: encrypt data but do not encode it and leave in encrypted binary form

Issue Custom Commands using the Command Tab

The command window is used to interactively send commands directly to the current FTP server session. This window gives you direct control of the remote FTP server. To get a list of the available commands that you can send type the HELP command and press the return key. You can issue any command directly as a raw FTP server command except for PASV, RETR, STOR, and STRU. Get a listing from the current dire as shown in the screen shot below by typing the LIST command.

Hint: Pressing the Up Arrow and Down Arrow on the keyboard will cycle through the last used commands. You can also clear your command session by right mouse clicking the window and selecting 'Clear All'.