FTP OutBox -- FTP OutBox is definitely an app with potential. In fact, FTP Outbox already gives the closest competitor, Internet Neighborhood, a run for its money with respect to efficiently uploading files to remote FTP sites. FTP OutBox's forté is speed and ease of usability -- the client is designed to be the quickest and most efficient FTP uploading program available. Unlike typical FTP clients, you won't even need to first run FTP OutBox in order to use it. Simply drag 'n' drop the files that you want uploaded to the FTP OutBox icon and the client takes care of the rest for you by running the main program, logging on to the remote server, transferring the files, ensuring that the files get copied correctly, logging off, and then shutting itself down. In addition to drag 'n' drop uploading, you can also send files by first right-clicking on the file or files you want to upload from Explorer and then selecting the respective FTP OutBox from the Send To popup menu. The files are then automatically copied to the remote server. A final option for transferring files is to simply cut and paste files into the FTP OutBox icon. Another of FTP OutBox's great features is the ability to upload a group of files to multiple FTP sites -- just select the files you want sent and the FTP sites you want the files sent to and then sit back and watch as FTP OutBox quickly and quietly does its job. Of the many FTP uploading clients available on the web, only Internet Neighborhood can match FTP OutBox's ease of use and the versatility of its file uploading capabilities.

While FTP OutBox is outstanding at uploading files, by no means is it a comprehensive FTP client. FTP OutBox does lack the ability to download files from remote file sites. It also won't allow you to carry out low-maintenance changes to remote file sites like creating new directories, changing file names, viewing text files, etc. Despite its shortcomings in these areas, FTP OutBox is an extremely useful client and can obviously make a webmaster's job a whole lot easier. Additional new features make the client even more useful. One of the best recent additions is automatic filename conversion upon transfer, a feature that allows you to specify changes like automatically renaming *.htm files to *.html (or vice versa) or changing mixed-case files to all lower-case (or all upper-case). Another cool feature gives users the ability to use the built-in Windows 95 scheduling agent for periodically taking files from a specific directory (your web files directory for example) and uploading these files to a remote server or servers. Finally, FTP OutBox will now auto-detect the transfer type for you, automatically switching between binary and ASCII depending on the contents of the file to be transferred. The only features missing at this point are an option for selecting a default group of servers to send files to (allowing you to bypass the server selection screen and, as a result, transfer files even more efficiently) and the ability to use the sheduling agent to send only files that are newer than those already on the remote server or servers. Overall, this is one outstanding app that is bound to save you a lot of time and energy, especially if you're an overworked webmaster (and who isn't these days ;-).

Pros: Quick, efficient app for uploading files to remote FTP sites; extremely easy to use; time-saving features
Cons: Can't select a default group of servers to send files to, lacks the ability to download files
New: Auto-detect transfer type, automatic filename conversion, scheduling via the Windows 95 agent, more

Version Reviewed: 1.50 Date of Review: 6/30/97

Add your own comments in our online user conferencing area