Last Updated: Thursday, 24. October 2002

Web FTP Tools

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a file transfer (client/server) application that is used to transfer files between a user’s local PC and another, remote computer system connected via a modem and telephone lines or by a local-area network. Users can connect to any remote system that has a valid Internet address and an FTP server, browse through directories and files, and transfer files between the two systems. In addition, users can create, change, and remove directories and view, execute, rename, or delete files. This protocol also supports anonymous logons, which enables users to access the vast store of information on anonymous FTP sites.

FTP Voyager by Rhino Software at Yahoo

FTP Voyager is an FTP client program that allows you to perform FTP operations in the same way that you would normally perform file operations. FTP Voyager can connect to almost any FTP site, whether it is a Unix site or a Windows NT site. FTP Voyager looks and feels like Windows Explorer; in fact, you can even drag and drop files from the FTP site to your hard drive, and vice versa.

FTP Voyager is a client program that makes FTP much easier to use on 32 bit Windows systems. The program is modeled after the Windows Explorer graphical interface, making it easy to learn and efficient to use.

The graphical interface of the program makes it unnecessary to remember the FTP command set, and has many features that take it beyond the capabilities of command line FTP: - Resume broken file transfers - Drag and drop transfer in and out of the desktop and Windows Explorer - Fast graphical navigation of remote sites - Graphical hierarchical site manager for managing connections - Transfer of directories and directory structures - Context sensitive help - Single step installation program - Threaded file transfer for multiple simultaneous file operations - On-line credit card registration directly from the program

Company name and address:

Rhino Software, Inc.
P.O. Box 53
Helenville, WI 53137
Voice: (414) 593-2751
FAX: (414) 593-2753

WS FTP by Ipswitch (download page for WS FTP)

Web Conferencing Tools

Floppy Disk Imaging (copying) Tools

Web Proxy Servers

A proxy server (sometimes referred to as an application gateway or forwarder) is an application that mediates traffic between a protected network and the Internet. Proxies are often used instead of router-based traffic controls, to prevent traffic from passing directly between networks. Many proxies contain extra logging or support for user authentication. Since proxies must "understand" the application protocol being used, they can also implement protocol specific security (e.g., an FTP proxy might be configurable to permit incoming FTP and block outgoing FTP).
Proxy servers are application specific. In order to support a new protocol via a proxy, a proxy must be developed for it.
SOCKS is a generic proxy system that can be compiled into a client-side application to make it work through a firewall. Its advantage is that it's easy to use, but it doesn't support the addition of authentication hooks or protocol specific logging.

Winproxy by Otis Software - Winproxy 2.0 includes support for Socks 5, Caching, reverse proxies on dial-up connections, and several other new features!

Review -

If you like to physically watch your connections to the internet, then Winproxy is a good tool to use. It is easy to setup after you get the hang of things and proxy servers.
Unlike some proxy servers, Winproxy has preconfigured ports for SMTP, Real Audio, America Online, and Socks 4. A nice feature for configuring the ports is the automatic DNS lookup (if you configure the ports while you are online with a live internet connection). Winproxy will get the service providers IP address from the internet, and then fill-in the required information. This saves a great deal of time when configuration your mail post office.
Being a fan of Real Audio, it was a pleasure to see that there was only one option required for setting this up. And the default works just fine, tell it port 1090 and go.
Winproxy was very consistent in dialing our to the network. And, I have not had any problems with it not dialing when requesting information or pages from the internet. The Socks port works extremely well with Lotus Notes 4.5. To use the Socks proxy port you select the enable option, and provide it with a DNS server address (IP not by name). The Socks port allows Notes to establish its own connection across the internet and provides a better response time than it will using the normal HTTP port only.
Configurations for Netscape and Internet Explorer were also simple. And the FTP port switches in without any user intervention. Some proxy servers require you to configure the FTP (and other) ports from the browser for proxy support. With Winproxy, you just leave these entries blank.
Again, you must know the IP address of your mail server (SMTP and POP3). But, here you setup the proxy to be the postoffice. Meaning that you enter the proxy's IP address in your browser's mail entries. Your browser or mail package, if your are using a separate on from Netscape and IE, calls the proxy (by IP address) and passes your user account information to it. Winproxy then dials and connects to your mail server. This makes setting up multiple users with internet mail easy if you have a single post office which they all user.

Supported Protocols:
HTTP (World Wide Web)
RealAudio
America On Line (one AOL account is required for each user)
FTP (Both CERN and User@Site type of FTP proxy)
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer, Netscape Security)
Telnet
NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol)
SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol)
POP3 (Mail Post Office Protocol)
Socks 4
DNS (Domain Name Services)
IMAP4 (Internet Mail Access Protocol)

WinGate by Deerfield Communications Company - WinGate 2.0 is a Proxy / Firewall server which runs on a single Windows 95 or Windows NT machine, and allows you to share a single Internet connection (ISDN, Modem, Ethernet, etc.) with your entire network. Although WinGate runs on one Win95 or NT machine, it can be accessed from nearly any TCP/IP-enabled workstation, including Windows for Workgroups, Macintosh, and others.

WinGate Forum:
Supported Features:

CSM Proxy by (c) 1995-1997 by Michael Kofler, Computer Software Manufaktur GmbH - CSM Proxy is a full featured proxy and caching server.

Review CSM Server 3.5 -

This product is a good server when you would like to have caching for frequently accessed web sites and information. While it does not have preconfigured ports for SMTP ( eMail inbox connection ) or a Socks proxy port (for secure network connections), it does give the user the option of creating these and other ports. After a bit of trial and error, it was easier to configure the POP3 (out going email server address) under the TCP Links option than using the built-in POP3 configuration page.
Testing of Socks was done using Lotus Notes 4.5 as the client. While Notes will connect to your Notes gateway, your eMail will be encrypted when not using a Socks port (which is normally 1080). But, if you are using a SOCKS port, then your network connection will be encrypted / secure to your internet gateway. This helps to make transmission to your notes server a bit snappy and provides a much better response time. The Socks configuration as well as FTP caching is available in the PLUS version of the software, however, I did not review this incarnation of the product.
But, as with all of the products, you need to know the IP address of hosts that you wish to contact before setting up any ports. This is especially the case for your SMTP and POP3 connection ports.
The Domain Name Server (DNS) port was easy to setup and use. The setup actually allowed you to enter primary and secondary DNS server IP address on the configuration page. And, allowed you to enter a timeout value for requests (a nice feature when search for faraway servers).
As of this writing though, I have not found out way it will perform or initiate a DNS search for an initial page, but not always for a subordinate page. Meaning that while an initial request will always cause the proxy to dial-out. But, if you pause long enough for the connection to hang-up, clinking a link to a page on the same site will not always cause the proxy server to re-establish the internet connection (re-dial your ISP).
If your are planning to have a network with many users requiring access to the same information (white papers or a shared server) then I would suggest getting and evaluation copy of CSM Proxy. This will keep your internet traffic (and bills) on the low side while providing a quick response to frequently requested information.

White Paper:
Supported Features.

File Server Sites:

www.netfix.com - For All Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows Applications. PhotoShop Plug-ins.

http://www.unimedia.fr/ General Utilities at UniMedia - Rue de l'Ebaupin - BP 284 - .I. Angers Beaucouzé -49072 BEAUCOUZE CEDEX (Netscape, IE, Mail & News, Windows 95 Desktop Themes).

http://windex.daci.net/ at The Windex Search Engine - Currently 2713 Links in 80 Categories to 32-bit Windows Software!

http://www.shareware.com/ at Shareware.com for PCs and Macs (apple).

http://www.download.com/Browsers/ at Download.com by c|net. Get the latest version of your favorite browsers

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