Using SmartFTP

SmartFTP is totally free for personal use and fully functional. You can download it here: SmartFTP. If you want to follow along, go ahead and do that now... I'll wait.

Take a quick look at this image, and then we'll break it into more manageable parts and talk about how it works.

Figure 1.1: Overview: the whole thing.

1. Overview

Figure 2.1: Overview: The Menu and Address bar.

2. Address box

Address box: where you enter the FTP server address as shown:

Figure 2.2: Address box.

3. Login and Password Boxes

Login Box: where you enter your login name and password (leave the default port value "21" as is).

Figure 2.3: Login name and password boxes.

1. Overview

This window is for navigating on the remote host. It works essentially just like using Windows Explorer in folder mode. In the left pane is the folder structure, with and signs to expand and collapse the sub-folders. The right pane shows the contents of the folder currently highlighted in the left pane... Just like Windows Explorer. Now, let's break it down a bit, and cover the features you're most likely to use.

Figure 3.1: Overview of the Remote Browser.

2. Title Bar

This serves the same basic functions as a normal Windows title bar. It shows the name of the remote host(s) in the upper left tab(s). And has a "close this window" X at the upper right. Immediately below is the address bar which shows the full path to the currently highlighted file or folder in the navigation panes below. The folder icon with the green arrow at the right of address bar is used to go up one level in the folder structure:

1. The "Up One Folder" button.

But it's probably easier to use the full graphical display in the left pane to navigate folders.

Figure 3.2: The Title bar.

3. The Tool Bar

Figure 3.3: The Tool bar.

This bar contains the usual cast of characters one finds in a browser tool bar, plus a few more that may need some explanation. From left to right they are:

1. The "Connect/Disconnect" button.
   Self-explanatory.
2. The "Reconnect" button.
   Don't have a clue why someone thought this was needed, but again, self-explanatory.
3. The "Refresh" button.
   Again, not really much need. All the hosts I've ever dealt with refresh automatically after any and all changes, anyway. But it's essentially same as a web browser refresh button.
4. The "Stop" button.
   Stops any upload or download operation currently in progress
5. The "View File" button.
   Opens a text editor with the targetted file in it. You can specify which editor you prefer in the "tools > preferences > general" dialog window. The default app is Windows Notepad which is sufficent 99% of the time.
6. The "Open File or Folder" button.
   Pretty much self-explanatory, but single/double clicking the target file or folder in the browser's navigation panes is easier.
7. The "Rename File or Folder" Button.
   Self explanatory.
8. The "Delete File or Folder" Button.
   Self explanatory.
9. The "Make New Folder" button.
   Self explanatory.
10. The "Properties" button.
    Used to set the CHMOD file properties on a UNIX host. Used mainly for scripts and forms where you have to allow users limited write access to the host server; default, and usually all that's necessary for users, is read access. There's no need to change the default properties on HTML, CCS, image, or zip files.
11. The "Copy" button.
    Self explanatory.
12. The "Paste" button.
    Self explanatory.
13. The "ASCII Transfer Mode" button.
    Sets the file transfer mode to ASCII, which is a pretentious acronym for text document. This used to be an important part of using FTP protocols: HTML and other text documents had to be transferred in ASCII mode, while images and archives, like zip files, had to be done in Binary. Now all FTP clients, including this one, have an "Auto" mode which does this automatically for each file. An orange square highlight means this mode is active. If you're curious ASCII stands for: American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
14. The "Binary Transfer Mode" button.
    Basically the vice versa of the "ASCII" description. Please note that SmartFTP defaults to "Binary", so be sure to set it to "Auto" each session. An orange square highlight means this mode is active.
15. The "Auto Transfer Mode" button.
    This should always be your active mode! This mode automatically selects the correct transfer mode for each file before upload or download, and is the best choice for most users. An orange square highlight means this mode is active.
16. The "Passive Transfer Mode" toggle.
    This is a toggle between "active" and "passive" transfer modes. What's the difference? I don't know, but the default works just fine, so you can essentially ignore it.
17. The "Favorite Item Properties" button.
    This would be used to store frequently used CHMOD property changes, but for our purposes, is not needed.
18. The "Add to Favorites" button.
    This would assign a CHMOD property rule to the favorites list, and again, not needed for our purposes.

4. Left Navigation Pane

The left navigation pane, also known as the Folders pane, allows quick and easy navigation through the folders on the remote system. I have 2 views below, one in full expansion, so you know where not to be (stick with the folders in bold and you're fine) and one in the "public html" folder, which is where you should start by default... doesn't always happen that way though.

One of the most common errors I make when uploading is being in the wrong folder. Make sure you're in the right folder on the remote host before uploading. Images to the "images" folder, armor zip files to the "zipfiles/armor" folder, etc.

Figure 3.4: The Left Navigation pane
fully expanded.

Figure 3.5: The Left Navigation pane
in public html.

5. The Right Navigation Pane

This where you can access files directly on the remote host. To view, copy, delete... all your normal file operations.

Figure 3.6: The Right Navigation pane.

6. The FTP Logs Pane

This is a time stamped list of all actions taken during an FTP session. Essentially, you can ignore it. You can even close it from the X in the lower left hand corner of the pane if it gets in your way.

Figure 3.5: The Log pane.

The Local Browser Window

This is pretty much the same as the remote browser except it lacks the remote host only functions on the tool bar, and is used for browsing the files and folders on your computer. Uses the same 2 pane system, Folder navigation on the left and File and Folder navigation on the right.

Figure 4.1: The Local Browser Window.

1. The Quick Transfer toolbar

The quick transfer toolbar contains a vertical list of six toolbar icons. Most of which we can safely ignore. But the top two are important and frequently used.

Figure 5.1: The Quick Transfer toolbar

Breakdown of the quick transfer toolbar:

1. The "Download" button.
   Downloads selected file(s) to your computer into the folder selected in the local browser. This will be your primary means of downloading files in FTP.
2. The "Upload" button.
   Uploads selected file(s) to the remote host into the folder selected in the remote browser. This will be your primary means of uploading files in FTP.
3. The "Move Right" button.
   As far as I know, only useful between two open local browsers, and so unlikely to needed for our purposes.
4. The "Move Left" button.
   Same as Move Right.
5. The "Sync Navigation" button.
   Not sure what it does exactly, but I am confident it won't be needed for our purposes.
6. The "Queue/Direct Transfer" button.
   Same as the Nav Sync button: Don't know, and don't think we need to.

1. The Menu Bar

Figure 6.1: Overview of the Menu bar.

2. The File Menu

These are probably things easy to find on your own, but I include them in hopes of making the whole operation a little more intuitive.

The File menu is where you open new browser windows, both remote and local. You can have multiple windows of each open if necessary.

A couple things about opening "Remote Browser" windows:

1. If you currently have no "Remote Browser" windows open, opening a new one will default to the "FTP Host" in the "Address" bar.
2. If you already have a "Remote Browser" window open, and select "Open New Remote Browser," a dialog box will open asking for the parameters to the new "Host."

Figure 6.2: File Menu.

3. The View Menu

The view menu is where you will find commands to toggle some of the various tool bars and windows on and off, and configure your browser viewing for files and folders.

Figure 6.3: View Menu.

A quick look at a few of the sub menus:

1. Figure 6.4: In "View > View" you can set the file and folder icon style. SmartFTP defaults to "details" view, but if you prefer a different icon view, you can set it here.
   
2. Figure 6.5: In "View > Toolbars" you can toggle the various toolbars on and off. This can help "clean up" the GUI making it easier to use. It is recommended that you keep the "Quick Transfer" bar open, but the rest can be set to perssonal preference once you are comfortable with the GUI.
   
3. Figure 6.6: In "View > Other Windows" you can toggle on and off the four tabbed windows at the bottom of the GUI. This recommended, but will be covered more specifically in the next section.
   
4. Figure 6.7: In "View > Panes" you can toggle on and off a couple of the panes. Toggling the "Log" pane off is fine, but it's recommended you keep the browser's "Folder" panes open for easy navigation.
   

1. Other Windows

As you might suspect with such an auspicous name, this section is not only last, but definately least. It refers to the 4 tabbed windows at the bottom of the viewport. They are, in order of default appearance: Transfer Queue, Temporary Queue, Connections, and Speed. The two "queue's" sound self-explanatory enough, and maybe they are, but I just find it easier to the selects files in the Browser Window, and click the Upload button. The "Connections" Window is the only marginally useful one of the four. You get a fairly precise graphical indicators of upload/download speeds, progress and time remaining. The "Speed" window just plots your upload/download speeds on a line graph.

My best recommendation os to close all 4 and give yourself the extra room in the viewport. You can do that by clicking the X in the boittom left corner of the each of the four windows or use the "view" menu to toggle them off.

Figure 7.1: Other Windows overview.