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December 30, 2005

Happy New Year!

Enjoy the new year everybody!

Posted by Van K at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

Five most popular posts for the year

5. Deleting address bar info in WS_FTP - One of the most asked questions this year was how to delete the information in WS_FTP's address bar and we provided the answer.

4. New WS_FTP Coming Soon - First news of the new WS_FTP 2006 was posted here.

3. AOL Users Get Free FTP Space - We pointed you to more information on AOL's free web space for subsribers (if you're an AOL subscriber and aren't using your free space, why not?).

2. First Screenshot of New WS_FTP - FTPplanet had the first screenshot of WS_FTP 2006 and we posted it for all to see.

And the most popular post of the year was....

1. What version of WS_FTP are you using? - WS_FTP LE is still very popular, despite being "out of print" for almost two years.

Posted by Van K at 08:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 29, 2005

Using WS_FTP (a case study)

Excerpt from a WS_FTP case study:

"Kentucky-based Vivid Impact Corporation has earned a solid reputation for producing top-quality, high-definition graphic printing jobs—from give-away coupons for national fast-food chains such as KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut to technical manuals for heavy-machinery manufacturers. Seeking an advantage in an increasingly competitive business, Vivid looked for a more convenient and cost-effective way to transfer materials such as logos, advertisement slicks and high-definition graphics to and from customers as opposed to using overnight mail, UPS or couriers. WS_FTP Server and WS_FTP Professional proved to be the answer."

Read the rest here.

Posted by Van K at 08:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 27, 2005

25% Off WS_FTP Home

As thanks for making 2005 a successful year for FTPplanet, we'd like to offer you 25% off the regular price of WS_FTP Home. Click here and enter the coupon code HAPPY2006 to receive the discount.

Hurry, though, because the coupon will only work until December 31, 2005.

Posted by Van K at 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

Free Web Space

If you're paying for internet access through an ISP (AOL, Comcast, NetZero, etc.), chances are you also receive some free web space with your monthly bill.

While the amount of free space you get depends on your ISP, it's usually 10 or 20 megabytes -- enough to put up a personal web site, some digital photos, a back up of your most important files, etc.

Posted by Van K at 08:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 23, 2005

Happy holidays!

Have a safe and happy holiday from your friends at FTPplanet!

Posted by Van K at 11:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 22, 2005

WS_FTP Survey -- Chance to Win an iPod

FTPplanet is running a survey on WS_FTP. We'd appreciate participation from anybody who has a few minutes to spare. The results of the survey will be provided to the WS_FTP Development Team and will directly impact the product.

To thank you for participating, one lucky winner will receive an iPod.

Take they survey here.

Posted by Van K at 08:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 21, 2005

Partial file transfers

From the WS_FTP help files:

"If WS_FTP consistently returns some number of bytes of a file and can never retrieve the whole file, you need to set the Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) in your program stack to 576. For more information on setting the MTU, go to the KnowledgeBase on the Ipswitch Web site, www.ipswitch.com, and search for "MTU."

If WS_FTP sometimes does not return a complete file and leaves off from 50 to 512 bytes, you could be using an inadequate network stack. Some network stacks do not properly handle data packets that have the FIN flag set. These stacks improperly return a length of zero to a "blocking recv socket" call and do not make all the data available.

If you're not using the Microsoft TCP/IP stack (part of the Windows 95, 98, 2000, and NT operating systems), contact your network stack provider for an updated version of the network stack."

Posted by Van K at 09:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 20, 2005

Linking folders

In WS_FTP Professional 2006, you can link folders between your computer and FTP site (or two remote sites, if that's your thing). Linking folders meants that the folder structure, deletion, creation, etc. is mirrored between the sites (if you create a folder on your computer, that same folder would be created on your FTP site).

To link folders, simply navigate to the folders you want to link on both the local and remote sites, then click 'Tools' and finally click 'Link Folders'. That's it!

There are, of course, a number of items that will break the link. If this happens, WS_FTP will let you know through a dialog box.

Posted by Van K at 10:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 19, 2005

WS_FTP Features

We're often asked what the features of WS_FTP are. While this information can be found in a variety of places, we present them here for your convenience :-)

There are, of course, many more features than this list as WS_FTP is a very powerful piece of software but these are the top ten:

1. Connect your computer to an FTP site
2. Transfer files between a computer and an FTP site
3. Browse files/folders on FTP sites
4. Transfer files from one remote computer to another computer, right from your desktop
5. Auto-resume/auto-retry of failed transfers
6. Secure connections for data encryption
7. Transfer multiple files at the same time
8. Schedule FTP transfers
9. Synchronize your computer with a remote FTP site (or two remote sites)
10. Multiple views, including thumbnails

Please note that not every feature is in every version of WS_FTP. The latest versions have more features than earlier ones, and Professional has some advanced features not found in LE/Home.

Posted by Van K at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 16, 2005

What is passive mode?

When connecting to an FTP site, a data connection is typically established between your computer (the "client") and the FTP site (the "server") by the server. Passive mode reverses this, so it is your computer that establishes the connection.

FTPplanet recommends using passive mode as often as you can, though not every server will allow this. If you have trouble connecting in passive mode, turn it off and see if that helps.

The passive mode option can be found in most versions of WS_FTP on the advanced tab of a particular site's options.

Posted by Van K at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 15, 2005

Default Sites in WS_FTP

Have you ever wanted to make a particular FTP site your default site? In WS_FTP 2006 (and possibly some earlier versions), you can do this in three simple steps:

1. Open the site manager (File > Connect > Site Manager)
2. Right click on the FTP site you want as your default
3. Select 'Default Site' from the pop-up menu

That's it! Next time you start WS_FTP, your selected site will be the default.

Posted by Van K at 08:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 13, 2005

WS_FTP Getting Started Guide

Here's another great guide for getting started with WS_FTP. It is in PDF format and written with WS_FTP 2006 in mind, but has great information even if you're on a different version or using another FTP client.

Posted by Van K at 08:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

WS_FTP Skins

Visit the FTPplanet Skins Center to download a different look for WS_FTP. There is also a tutorial on how to change skins in WS_FTP.

You must be using the latest version of WS_FTP Home or Professional to use these skins. They won't work with WS_FTP LE.

Posted by Van K at 08:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 12, 2005

Winsock errors you might see with FTP

Most messages you see in FTP are accompanied by an FTP code (both successful transfers and errors have FTP codes). However, occassionally you will see an error code appear that is not generated by FTP. These are Winsock errors and are usually five digit numbers starting with a 1.

This article lists the common Winsock errors that you might run across when using FTP. Click on an error code to learn more about it.

Posted by Van K at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 09, 2005

WS_FTP.ini

WS_FTP stores configuration information in a files called WS_FTP.ini. Specifically, it containts FTP site, username and password information (the password information is encrypted).

Keeping a backup of this file is a great idea. Should you ever need to restore your system, having this file saved on a CD or disk will save you a lot of time.

See the table at the bottom of this article to find out where the WS_FTP.ini file is stored on your system (it varies by version of WS_FTP and Windows).

Posted by Van K at 08:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 07, 2005

Using WS_FTP to Create Thumbnails

In WS_FTP Professional 2006 and WS_FTP Home 2006, you can create thumbnails of images right from the FTP client. I just found out about this feature and it's very cool!

Navigate to the folder that contains the images you want to thumbnail and then right click in the folder (but not on a file). The pop-up menu will have the option 'Create Thumbnails' -- select that.

A box will pop-up asking for the folder name (where you would like to put the thumbnails, a new 'Thumbs' folder inside the current folder is the default) and what you would like to call the thumbnails (using %original% to reference the original file name).

Posted by Van K at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 06, 2005

ASCII vs. Binary

When transferring files to and from an FTP site, the general rule is to use ASCII for 'text' files (which includes .html, .asp and script files) and Binary for everything else. That means, you'd use Binary to transfer JPG and GIF images, any programs, .ZIP files, etc.

In an FTP client, it's always a good idea to check the 'Auto' option. Using 'auto' should match the correct transfer mode for each file type.

Posted by Van K at 09:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 05, 2005

'Retry Transfer'

In WS_FTP, there are a few options related to retrying transfers.

Open the Options screen (Tools > Options) and then choose 'Transfers' from the left-hand column. The first two options let you tell WS_FTP how many times to retry failed transfers and the delay between retries.

I set the number of retries to 2 with 15 seconds between each attempt.

Posted by Van K at 01:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 02, 2005

Storing Digital Pictures

If you need a place to put your photos online, check out our free and paid hosting reviews.

For decent storage of digital photos, your best bet is a paid options, since you'll want a lot of storage space.

Keeping your photos online (in other words, on a remote server) is a great way to back up photos.

Posted by Van K at 08:44 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

December 01, 2005

Digital Picture Week Continues...

Don't forget to check out our entire Digital Photo Guide.

For even more articles and information on digital pictures, photos, tips, tricks, etc., check out our friends at ACD Systems.

Posted by Van K at 02:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page

WS_FTP's Thumbnail View

The latest versions of WS_FTP have a thumbnail view, which makes it very easy to take a quick glance at your photos before transferring them.

In this screenshot, you can see the thumbnail view on the left and the classic view on the right:

Click to enlarge.

We have a tutorial for switching to thumbnail view. Check it out here.

Posted by Van K at 09:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack digg this add to del.icio.us add to My Web Furl this page