SmartFTP - Not so smart anymore - Looking for a new FTP Client

Posted March 25th, 2008 by Purazar
in

For about 3 years I've been using SmartFTP. Very clean, simple, low resource consumption, and not to mention - FREE!!!

If you would have asked me which FTP client I used, I would have said SmartFTP - but not anymore. For the past few months, it has been acting odd, very 'shareware'(read flakey) like with annoying shutdowns, refusing to start and upgrade messages. The reason I really like it because it just worked. But lately is has been cause me grief. It either won't start, or will start and then the interface will disappear (but it is still running - I can kill the thread from the Windows Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+Delete)).

One way to solve this is to re-install. When I do re-install, it asks me to close any Adobe Product, Firefox, and Safari... What? How could it possibly sharing files/resources with those programs? Also after the install I have to restart my system? WHAT? I haven't installed software that needed a restart in a long time...

Yes, I am being picky, but I know there are option... 

So, now I'm looking for a FTP client. Nothing fancy, something that will just work.

Any ideas?

I use FileZilla, which is a

On March 25th, 2008 Ellie (not verified) said:
I use FileZilla, which is a great FREE FTP program. It is definitely one of the few I would suggest to someone who has FTP needs. :) Let me know how it works out!

FizeZilla is okay but nowhere near as good as SmartFTP

On July 3rd, 2008 Jonn ftp (not verified) said:
I've been using SmartFTP for about 4 years. Now that it's no longer free I've been looking for an alternative, but haven't find anything which matches the functionality of SmartFTP. In particular, I need to manage multiple sites and SmartFTP can facilitate this with its tabbed interface. Trying FileZilla, but it's a bit too Noddy for me. Some annoyances for starters: can only manage one site at a time; need to configure its default editor; times out the connection automatically, though I'm sure this can be configured.

SmartFTP Free Version EXPIRES

On July 15th, 2008 Randman (not verified) said:
There's been considerable commenting on the web around why SmartFTP seems to start, displays the splash, then just exits. Whenever the question is asked in the official blogspace, the SmartFTP people advise to re-install it, as if there were some "system problem". I've been doing this long enough to know what's going on: If you get the "free for personal use" version, it will eventually expire without notice, and you will not be able to get past the splash screen. That's all well and good - they can do what they want, but when there's something that you wanted to take care of right then and there and you can't, it's pretty frustrating. They did this so that when the eventual day came (as it did) when they hoped you'd be hooked on the drug, they would start charging for it, and the next time you go to download it, you have to pay! I don't know about all y'all, but I'm not doing business with someone that sneaky. What will they do next?

Good Call

On July 16th, 2008 Purazar said:
Good call on that Randman .. that seems to be the exact pattern. I've never given it much thought, but your idea seems pretty valid. I've switched to GoFTP for now, and it's doing what I need it to do. If i need a more advanced client, I'll start looking around again.

Free FTP

On July 20th, 2008 Rocky (not verified) said:
I've switched to FireFTP add on for Firefox. Works great and means I don't have to have a seperate ftp programme anymore.

FireFTP is good

On July 22nd, 2008 Purazar said:
It's good for basic one or two file uploads, but sometimes I find it slow... Also, sometimes I need to queue up my uploads or need a way to just download, edit and re-upload the file. SmartFTP used to have that option, but it was flaky at times. For now, I'm still using GoFTP, and it's working out quite well. It doesn't have the full functionality I want, but it does the trick.

Winscp ?

On July 25th, 2008 Winscp (not verified) said:
Winscp is free. it does not have a fancy interface as smart ftp... you have to start the program multipe times to manage more then one account... ari ari ari it's not smart ftp. let's just fucking crak Smart ftp and keep publishing cracks for it until they go back to free... i'm sure that if you open a site called smartCrack.com and plublish cracks that are indeed for smartFtp a) they can not sue you because just like them you are giving out a product b) you will make tons of people happy c) it may make smartftp go back to the way it was. i have used the darn thing for over 6 years i think, i have owned like 10 licenses to it too, because they keep on invalidating the license every once in a while. don't get scammed. don't buy the license. you can download OLD versions( like 2.0 or 2.5 which workd so nicely!) which still run since they do not "check" the internet for updates and all of that crap automatically. i still say that if someone want to help creating cracks he is very, very welcome to send me an email... slayeremperor AT yahoo DOT com maybe we can make our own version of smartFTP with out the Updates, the Queue (which btw is completely useless and just takes more time...)

Yeah i've been having the

On August 6th, 2008 Ramon (not verified) said:
Yeah i've been having the same problems. Like you, i'm getting pretty frustrated right about now. My big problem is that it got all the passwords from my ftp servers. Sure i could recover all of them, but that would leave me with hours of work and genuinly I don't wanna lose Smart FTP.. I'll be searching for some cracked version, sorry Smart_FTP team -> I ain't buying 'free'ware..

To be honest, only reason I

On August 6th, 2008 Purazar said:
To be honest, only reason I switched to Smart FTP was because it felt like it was a company that was breaking the cycle - Giving away great free software. I guess everyone eventually turns to the dark side, but they did it in a very shrewd way... which is pissing people off. I use Avast which is an awesome Anti-Virus software. They have a free home version with is more than adequate for what I need. SmartFTP could have done something similar. I don't need the scheduling and multi-thread uploads. I just one the simple yet fast user-interface that I liked from the beginning. I won't use cracked software, but rather just switch to a different brand completely.

Easy fix

On August 14th, 2008 No name Jack (not verified) said:
Set your system time to 2007 :)

System Time

On August 14th, 2008 Purazar said:
Haha. Thanks for that tip. I would have never guessed that this trick would still work. I assumed that we were past the days where you could reset a software's trial period by altering the system clock. But now a days there are too many other things that mess up if you go `back and fourth in time`, and Windows automatically ends up synchronizing with the time server every few days. I guess you could turn back the clock when starting up SmartFTP, then switch it back!!!

Easy fix

On August 19th, 2008 bobs12 (not verified) said:
That's exactly what I do :) You need to remember to go back to the right time before sending emails etc. but otherwise it works perfectly. I was also surprised at how simple it was :) SmartFTP was (until the last build with the weird fly-out screens) the best FTP I have ever used. It still is, but the new 'confirm file overwrite' screens are just excessive. It was better a couple of builds back. That's another reason I wouldn't buy it. Sorry SmartFTP - I disagree on the whole with piracy, but such a sneaky move is just holding loyal users to ransom.

Yup

On August 19th, 2008 Purazar said:
You hit the nail on the head. They were a great FTP program, but I don't agree with this weasel attack on their loyal customers. Like I said before, I could go without all the fancy features, so it would be great if they started providing a free, 'lite' version. I'd be happy with that. About the Confirm File Overwrite dialog box - Could they have made those buttons any bigger? At first glance, they don't even look like buttons unless you hover over them. Going from bad to worse.

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