Simple and Easy windows FTP client for non-tech types : recommandations ?

I have to give FTP access to non-technical people to upload big files... since I have found no web based interface to this purpose I have to find simple free FTP client to point to !

I know of FireFTP extension for FF and FileZilla of course but even FileZilla might be too much for those (yeah, well, the average computer skills is not very high in my dear country ).

As a Mac user I know a few nice apps like Fetch, Flow or Cyberduck but I have lost track of what exist in Windows world and as usual win apps are not as user intuitive as Mac... at least that I know of ! Do you have a simple, easy, minimal FTP client for Windows to recommend (other than FireFTP) ?

Filezilla for Windows is fine. Not too techie and fast (faster than on mac anyway). Another option is to set up an FTP folder as a remote network drive on windows. There are apps to enable this and I think it may be possible to do natively on Vista. This would be easier than using an FTP app.

Here are some solutions:
http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html
http://www.magnetk.com/sftpdrive/

Hope this helps.

I second your thought of FireFTP, since it’s very simple and you can easily walk them through doing things remotely regardless of platform differences. If you want an actual client app, then I prefer WinSCP to Filezilla by far (I think it’s interface is friendlier as well). And you could always try a web solution like SQL Buddy, which would mean that all of your clients are using the exact same interface (SQL Buddy has been discussed in these forums).

Just setting up a remote folder is also a possible solution, but you usually lose most advanced FTP functions (file resuming, setting permissions, etc.), which might or might not matter to you.

Thanks Jay I have totally skipped the remote drive option it’s a good one !
I’ll look into that.

Thanks ZAP I’ll check WinSCP out It might seem user friendly, but I think Filezilla might already be too much for non-tech people (the command window for instance, doesn’t need to be displayed by default...).

One additional piece of information about WebDrive - there is a French version of the software available. You can find more information at: www.webdrive-france.fr

Cool thank you for the information I didn’t see that, I’ll check the link ASAP

Yeah of course I’ll do limit to a user folder, I sure don’t want them having access even if they were tech savvy !

Thanks for the IE link

davidm and GaneshXL,

While IE is easy, its FTP is slow as hell. If your client is going to be uploading large files they may end up with errors or failed uploads. I don’t know why but it just doesn’t work well. In fact using IE’s FTP can often lead to either IE or explorer.exe crashing altogether and frustrating the user.

I know this isn’t helpful but I’d test this against a trial of other options.

Cheers,

Jay

I meant to test it as I have never used it once, so thanks for the input I wouldn’t want to end up with frustated users... did you re-check this feature with IE7 ? Maybe it works better...

I’ve also had a lot of trouble with large files (uploads and downloads) timing out using IE for FTP. And I don’t believe that any version of IE is capable of resuming failed transfers, so that was a big part of why it was so frustrating. I think that you’d have the same issues with mapped remote drives, since I think that the same process is occurring under the hood whether you use Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer.