FTP Voyager : Java Glossary

The program is discontinued. The secure versions are available for a fee. On 2012-12-18 RhinoSoft the maker of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Voyageur was bought out by SolarWinds. The new owner has made FTP Voyageur a free program. It is a utility for uploading and downloading files via FTP. The latest version is 16.2.0.328 Last revised/verified: 2014-11-05. I like it because it has fewer bugs than the competition and lets me see what is going on when there is trouble. For automation, you need a tool like Netload, but FTP Voyager is useful when things don’t work or for exploring a new site. It hides its configuration in "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\RhinoSoft.com\FTP Voyager\FTPVoyager.ftp". In Vista, look in "C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\RhinoSoft.com\FTP Voyager\FTPVoyager.ftp". You might want to back this file up. Both the plain and secure versions are free.

The problems with it:

• It constantly pauses displaying an error message: Unable to build data connection: Address already in use. The file it was working on at time is quietly ignored in the upload/download. This drives you nuts since you have to sit and watch for hours clicking ok to keep a transfer working, then clean up all the missing pieces later.
• Primitive ability to sync time with server. You must manually select server’s time zone. It presumes both server and client have accurate time. It supports a proprietary RhinoSoft scheme that requires a Rhino server.
• Does not let you set uploaded file permissions.
• It uses terms like newer without saying it means remote or local is newer.
• It is extremely easy to upload or download files to the wrong directory. I find I have about a 1 in five chance of getting it right on the first try.
• When you upload a file, it puts the time of the upload on the uploaded file, not the last modified date.
• It keeps losing the contents of its configurations — details of how to login to each website. I have to restore them from backup.

Tips

• To synchchonise (just upload changed files) click the green ball with the white arrows in the top left corner.
• To upload, select the remote destination directory, then highlight the files and directories in the local directory then upload. Don’t select the local directory itself, otherwise there will be a new directory of that name created nested in the target.
• Use the synchronise feature instead of upload/download. There you can very clearly see and modify the local and remote directory and what will happen before you ok the transfers. You trigger it with Ctrl-S.
• When you click sync, the upper window tells which files are newer on the remote site. You can horizontally scroll to compare the remote and local dates. Normally the remote date will be after the local date, even when both files are identical since the website date is the time the file was uploaded, not last modified. If you check ignore newer, it will not upload a file just because the remote version is newer. If you click the up-pointing blue arrow you will upload files to the website server.
• When you click sync, the lower window tells which files are newer on the local site. You can horizontally scroll to compare the remote and local dates. Normally the remote date will be after the local date, even when both files are identical since the website date is the time the file was uploaded, not last modified. If you check ignore newer, it will not upload a file just because the local version is newer. If you click the down-pointing blue arrow you will download files to your local directory.