[thelist] Seeking a Better FTP Client

Charles F. Johnson charles at littlegreenfootballs.com
Thu Jul 19 08:58:10 CDT 2001


Steve Cook <steve.cook at evitbe.com> typed:

> Are you developing directly on the server? Why exactly do you have to
> reconnect every 5 minutes? Wouldn't it be a good idea to get code right on
> your development machine first and *then* upload it to the server?

Good points, Steve, but there *are* some good reasons to want to stay
connected more than 5 minutes at a time.

One example: developing PHP applications on a Mac. There's no native PHP
implementation for OS 9 (you can install it under OS X, but that's a whole
nother ball of worms), so the only way to test code is to upload to the
server and browse to it. If you're in a rapid cycle of development, making
small changes, uploading, testing, it's very annoying to have to reconnect
every 5 minutes.

However, the security issues are real (as you point out, FTP is an unsecured
protocol). So even though there are good reasons to want to stay connected,
there are better reasons to have a timeout.

charles johnson
lgf web design
http://littlegreenfootballs.com





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