by Melissa Gilbert

Created on: January 01, 2010

You may be asking what does FTP stand for?  FTP stands for file transfer protocol. Most people that happen to need to use ftp is because they need to batch upload or download files from your own website or server.  If you tried upload each file individually, it would take forever to do so.  That is where FTP comes in.

The best way to find a ftp program would be to google it.  You may be surprised what you will find.  Another place to go is go to downloads.com to find one.  Put in the keyword ftp to find what you are looking for.

Some FTP programs have it where you can drag and drop the files you want and some you have to find the files and transfer it with a click of the mouse.

There are a few great FTP programs that are worth looking at.  First, there are plenty of free ones that you should never have to purchase a FTP program to use.  One of the lightest weighted FTP programs out there is FTP Core.  It is not a drag and drop type of program, but it does its job perfectly.  Also it is not a resource hog on your computer.  You can run this on your poorest computer and not really run out of resources.   Then there is filezilla.  Filezilla is probably one of the most well known programs out there.  It’s a drag and drop type of FTP Program.  Then there is coffeecup FTP which is believed to be a drag and drop also.

No one FTP program is better than the other.  It really is based off of preference and what you like out of the program.  Some people may like dragging and dropping what they want to upload or download from their servers while others may like to click the mouse to get what they want.  In the end, the end product is what you are looking for.  Does it do what you want it to do?

The FTP programs listed here are not the end all, be all programs out there.  You really have to test them all out to see what works from you.  It also does not hurt to have more than one on your computer as one day you may like one and another, you may like another.  Testing them each out is the best way to go to see what fits you.

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