WS_FTP Pro for Windows

NOTE: The specific information on this webpage has been confirmed via email correspondence with Ipswitch technical personnel.

Crucial Feature has Terrible Documentation and Poor Design

A file that is text, HTML, postscript, other ASCII format (.txt, .html, .htm, .cgi), or EBCDIC should be transferred in ASCII mode.... A file that is a bitmap, an executable, or compressed (.bmp, .jpg, .exe, .zip) should be transferred in binary mode.

This is actually crucial. If you use the wrong mode, the transferred file will be useless. (Exceptions include HTML files, which web servers seem to understand even if they have been uploaded in binary mode.)

You could choose the mode each time you upload a file, but if you're like most humans you'll occasionally choose the wrong mode by accident. What is needed by just about every user is for WS_FTP to automatically choose the transfer mode according to file extension. This is what WS_FTP calls Auto Mode.

In v. 6, the interface showed 2 radio buttons, for Binary and ASCII respectively, and beside them a check box for Auto. Logically this should have been 3 radio buttons (since the 3 choices are mutually exclusive), but the real problem was that checking Auto was not remembered by the application between sessions. The user had to remember to check Auto (whose default, inappropriately, was OFF) each time the application was started.

In v. 7.5, the Help file says:

Specifying the Startup Transfer Mode

The Startup Transfer Mode is the transfer mode that will be used unless you override it at the time you transfer.

The Startup Transfer Mode can be set in two places. When you set it on the Advanced tab of program options, you set it as the default for all sites; when you set it on the Session tab of site properties, you set it for just that site, thus overriding the setting in the program options.

Some of the problems with this are as follows.

• There's no mode choice on "the Advanced tab of program options";

• If there were a mode choice on "the Advanced tab of program options", it would always be ignored, according to Help topic quoted above, since there's no way to avoid setting the mode in each site's Site Properties;

• "Site Properties" is hard to find;

• Once you find Site Properties, the transfer mode setting is NOT on the Session tab.

There's no mode choice on "the Advanced tab of program options": It's simply not there. There is no such choice on that tab or any other tab of Program Options.

Mode choice on "the Advanced tab of program options" is always ignored, according to Help topic: according to the Help topic explanation quoted above, the Site Properties setting always overrides the Program Options setting. But there's no way to avoid having a Site Properties setting. (There are 3 radio buttons there -- ASCII, Binary, Auto Detect -- and one is necessarily set.) So the Program Options setting (if indeed there were one) would ALWAYS be overriden.

"Site Properties" is hard to find: The counter-intuitive interface makes it a challenge to find how to modify Site Properties. But it can be done via menu choice "Sites: Organize Sites ..." An alternative route is to click the "Connect" button that the app presents a dialogue that allows you to select a site, then Connect, Edit, or Delete. Edit is how you get to the Site Properties.

It's NOT the Session tab of Site Properties: It's the Startup tab, NOT the Session tab.

IN SHORT: Typical users would want Auto Detect as the default for all sites. Despite the confusing documentation, there is no way to get this. You can make it the startup per site, but if it's initially wrong or changed after startup for any reason, you're likely not to notice (see problems with icon below).

Note that Ipswitch advises that "Auto-mode is the default for new sites when they are created."

Yet More Mode Problems

Although transferring in the proper mode (binary or ASCII) can be crucial, it is very difficult to see how WS_FTP is doing it.

The interface indicates the mode being used by means of an icon. There are 3 different icons (Binary, ASCII, Auto Detect), but they are almost indistinguishable from one another.

Incredibly, it is also very difficult to determine after the fact which mode was used to transfer a file. The "log window" of the app produces something like this:

Starting request
Transfer request completed with status: Finished
PORT 166,111,231,75,4,183
200 PORT command successful.
LIST
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
transferred 1681 bytes in 0.440 seconds, 29.847 Kbps ( 3.731 KBps).

But that "ASCII mode" you see appears to be for the directory listing (which is automatically obtained after completion of the transfer). The commands issued by WS_FTP to the server to select the file transmission mode, if any, are not shown in the log.

Ipswitch advises: "The log window won't always show WS_FTP send the TYPE command (this changes the transfer mode). WS_FTP only sends the TYPE command when the connection is not in the mode that is requested by the transfer."

There is also a Transfer Manager window, which has a History tab showing each file transfer. It shows datetime, details as to source and destination, and file size. But no mode.

Finally, if one examines the ws_ftp.log file, one can see something like

2002.05.13 08:53 A C:\uwsupp\PAIR HOME\simplefilter.pl --> wunxy.pair.com/usr/home/uriel2/simplefilter.pl
2002.05.13 08:54 B C:\uwsupp\PAIR HOME\TRIAL.DOC --> wunxy.pair.com/usr/home/uriel2/trial.doc

Ipswitch has now confirmed to me that A and B represent "ASCII" and "Binary", respectively. But I was unable to find this anywhere in the documentation, and I can't see why they don't simply spell it out instead of using just A and B.

Other Nuisances

I offer these additional nuisances in point form, because I am very very tired.

• Separate Help Window: With the help file open, there is no way to interact with the app. That is, Help is not a separate item in the Alt-tab task list. You have to close the help (losing whatever position you were in) before you can return and do anything in the app. (Downgrade since v. 6.)

  NOTE: I am experiencing this problem with Windows Me. Ipswitch tech support investigated this, also with Windows Me, and for some reason the problem does not occur on their machine. They also do not observe the problem when testing under Windows 98, NT or 2000. They have passed my issue on to their "R&D" department.

• Log file in wrong directory: In v. 6, after an upload, WS_FTP automatically updated the local log file in the same directory from which the upload occurred. This presented a way to easily see (by choosing datetime as the default sort order) which files in a directory had been updated/written since the last upload. (It was all those more recent than the log.) In v. 7.5, you specify a fixed directory for the log file, so this important feature is lost. (Downgrade since v. 6.)

  NOTE: Ipswitch advises you can get the v. 6 behavior by setting the log directory to ".\", which I've confirmed. But this is not in the documentation.

  Ipswitch's emails to me note that the ".\" option is in the "Knowledge Base" (KB) maintained at their site. (The KB is an archive of technical issues raised by users and addressed by Ipswitch Tech Support.) I replied that the KB is not a substitute for documentation. (The term "documentation" on this webpage does not include the KB.) Ipswitch's followup states:

  The KB is not a substitute for documentation. It is an addition to the documentation. This is where we submit article that pertain to a small amount of users and is not information all WS_FTP Pro Users will utilize. Very few legacy users have requested how to change this feature and many prefer to have the logs in a central location instead of spread through out their system.

• Unwanted "Transfer Manager" Window: This is always popping up after transfers, although one generally has no interest in seeing it. It remains open and in the Alt-tab task list, increasing workspace clutter. There seems to be no way to turn this off. (Downgrade since v. 6.)

  Ipswitch acknowledges this can't be turned off.