Secure Transfers for Your Files

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Graphical user interface
  • (8 more, see all...)

When first file transfers over a network were done, nobody thought about the security issues that could occur. After all, it was an experimental network and therefore only few people and computers connected to it. As time passed by, the numbers and also the hazards grew exponentially, until today.

Transferring files using messaging or FTP clients is an easy thing to do, but also insecure. Some people may exchange family photos or movies, freeware programs or other information that usually doesn't have to be secure. But what can you do when exchanging bank account data, sending your projects or confidential company data? Even the smallest security gap, once found by an intruder, can lead to big problems for you and your data transfer partners. These problems lead to the development and implementation of secure file transfer protocols such as SFTP and others.

WinSCP is a completely free program designed to help you transfer files securely using the SFTP and SCP transfer protocols. In order to use it you need three important things: a computer running Microsoft Windows and connected to the Internet, access to a SSH server with SFTP/SCP support and of course, the file(s) you need to transfer.

While installing the program you will be asked to set most of its important settings, such as the interface style (Norton Commander or Explorer-like). Just before you press the Install button you can review and get back to change the previously made changes, if needed. Don't worry if you get something wrong, the Preferences area can change everything for you afterwards without any problem.

Now let's follow the standard scenario as usual - the program is installed, we'll run it, use it to perform some basic operations, check out some of the advanced features and then draw the conclusion.

After starting up the program, you will have to enter your host and user name, password and change the port you'll use to connect if needed. You must also load a private key file if you have to use one. Then you have to choose the connection protocol and pick the file manager panels background color if you're not happy with the default Windows theme color. When all these are done, you can hit the Login button, but if you plan to connect again to the current host in the future, it may be a good idea to save the session first. Note that only from this start up screen you can change the transfer protocol, connection, SSH or authentication settings and more.

Once connected, if you can't see a two-panel interface, I advise you to go to Options>Preferences>Interface and change it to NC style, because this is the easiest way to use this program.

I suppose you have finished the previous step by now or even better, you were already into the NC style interface and that was not needed. If you want to upload or download files, just select them and press F5 or drag and drop them using your pointing device, it's just as easy as that! Local and remote operations (only the ones supported by your server) range from renaming or editing a file to viewing its properties and changing its permissions.

A nice feature that I found in WinSCP is the Console Window that can be used to execute remote commands that don't require user input and see their results (if your server allows it, of course).

Editing your remote files is easy to do; WinSCP has an internal text editor for that. When you choose to edit a file from the server, the file is downloaded to your computer, opened for editing and then saved and uploaded to your remote location.

Modern operating systems allow the use of multitasking, and most modern people try to use their time to the max and also tend towards doing more than just one task at a time. WinSCP can help users connect to more than one server at a time and managing open connections is very easy.

For Bookmark-oriented users, this program has the ability to add, remove or rename local and remote Bookmarks without any trouble. When it comes to files and directories, you can compare directories or keep the remote ones up to date, create new files, links or directories, sort them and many more.

If your bandwidth is limited and you want to limit your file transfer speed, you can do it on the fly, even set different limitations for each active transfer.

The Preferences available cover topics like the program's interface, transfer presets and mode, shell integration, custom commands and more. Just to remember before we end our trip, there are two main settings areas: first is to be found inside the login screen and the second can be accessed from the main program's interface.

This is a program that I've been using for a long time and it keeps amazing me every time we meet. Some of you may not need secure transfers yet, but when you do, remember this name: WinSCP.

The Good

WinSCP has all the features that you may ask from a FTP client, and can also be employed easily as an average-featured file manager. It is highly customizable, light and fast. The online Help is well documented and can clear out a lot of things for you.

The Bad

The only bad thing that I found in WinSCP is that it doesn't support regular FTP servers.

The Truth

If it's about secure connections and transfers, I couldn't ask for more. It's really a pity to give away such a great program for free, but it's great for all its users out there. If you needed it and found out about it now, then I can say only one thing: use it! If not, think again...maybe you didn't realize that you need it yet...

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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