CuteFTP can tackle almost any FTP task, including ancient and complicated custom tasks that only a few living Unix programmers still remember - nitty gritty stuff that isn't likely to interest the reader who is looking for an easy method of updating Web sites and downloading files. Luckily, CuteFTP also handles the basic stuff with aplomb.
Just how cute and easy is CuteFTP? Why don't you see to believe for yourself.
Start by getting online, then launching the program. If you don't have it yet, go ahead and download it — you can get a free trial version, but you'll have to shell out US$39.95 for the real deal. Establishing an FTP session requires logging on to a remote computer system in the same way you log in to your local network or ISP. There are two kinds of FTP connections: anonymous and otherwise. Establishing an anonymous FTP session only means that your user ID is "anonymous" and that your password is whatever you want it to be. Back when the Internet was small and cute, convention dictated that your password was your email address. In fact, some systems would reject your "password" if it didn't contain an @ symbol. If you want to old-school it, you need to enter your email address into the General Settings. Otherwise, you can leave the dummy address that CuteFTP uses as a default. Once you make a connection, you're ready to download.
Choose QuickConnect from the File Menu, or, alternately, click the aptly symbolic lightning bolt.In the resulting window, you'll find the cursor eagerly waiting for you in the Host Address box.
Looking for a fancy, singing, graphical, cute screensaver worthy of the Windows platform? Aren't we all? Enter ftp.cdrom.com into the Host Address box, and click OK. Once you've established the connection, choose Change Directory from the Command menu and type pub/cnet/win95/utilities/ and click OK. The right side of the screen display will suddenly fill with folders and files patiently waiting for the double-click that will usher them into the warm confines of your local drive. Scroll through to locate the file clinton.zip, and doubleclick to download the Rhode Island Soft System screensaver featuring Clinton playing his saxophone in a nightclub scene, backed by Gennifer, Monica, and Paula.
What? You want to do more than just suck some cute Clinton software off the Net? Maybe you're looking for a serious multiple file transfer? Again using QuickConnect, establish an anonymous FTP connection to uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu,
and navigate to the /pub/etext/gutenberg/etext90/ directory. Drag and drop const11.txt and bill11.txt into the Queue window at the bottom of the screen. Choose Transfer Queue from the Queue menu to download your own personal copies of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, or poke around further on this mirror site of Project Gutenberg to add more copyright-free original texts to your queue before transferring the files.
For a screenshot of this interface, click here.
Files available for anonymous FTPing and browsing are always located inside the pub/ directory of a remote site, though there are some (very rare) exceptions to this rule. When in doubt, look for a file with a name like README or README.1st for guidance. Even on servers that support long file names, navigating through someone else's file structure can be a bit baffling, so the better sites will also include an index file.
But enough about other people's file treasures. How can you get yours out there?
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