ASRT: Ftp Server Review Thread

[mouser]

suggestions?

[tenseiken]

How about FTP server software?  I recently bought a BPFTP Server license and the people over at DigitalCandle have been very accomodating.  I sent in a feature request that is being worked on and was asked to join a pool of beta testers.  Anyway, there are lots of FTP servers out there besides BPFTP--Serv-U, Gene6, etc.

[mouser]

i'd like to read a review of ftp server software as well.

i've tinkered with them enough to know that all of the ones you listed are good (i've also used Blackmoon ftp server which i liked alot).

but aside from knowing some minimum features i would insist on (like ssl support), im not sure i would be qualified to judge between the close competitors since I don't really use them.


You know what would be really great would be if we could find Guest Reviewers.
Reviewers that are qualified to write a long review on a specific category.
This would make me so happy if we could find a way to do this.

I know how much time it takes to write a review - it usually takes me a full day to do each of mine, and that's just the writing, so it would probably only be fair to offer a reviewer some monetary compensation since we do get donations from people based in part on them finding the reviews on this site useful.  Maybe $20?  If DonationCoder.com ever takes off and I can get more reviewers and software authors involved, I will implement a much more community-based donation system where donators can specifically indicate how their donations should be divided among authors and writers.  Another possibility would be that we could reward reviewers with other things - like a free license to a program if we get such an offer from a software author.

This site doesnt make enough money to pay a reviewer anything even approaching what they would make if they spent the time shining shoes, so believe me monetary incentive is not going to be the reason anyone writes a review, but at least it would let them go out and have a couple beers and relax after they were done

I'd have to be really convinced that the reviewer knew the subject well and could be fair and do a reasonable job of writing a nice long review of the style we have been doing so far.  Not sure how hard that would be to insure.  And I'd need to be convinced that the person was trustworthy and not shilling for some specific company product.

But I would be willing to work closely with someone in advance of review date helping to get a review shaped up, and I'd be willing to do the formatting and html formatting stuff.

So if anyone thinks they are expert enough in a topic to present a reasonable review in some area that I'm not comfortable reviewing, please volunteer.  Fame and Fortune and our thanks await you.

Any suggestions about this idea?

[nudone]

can't think of anything to suggest but it would be great to see it happen.

i'm sure there are altruistic experts out there who would be willing.

[tenseiken]

I like the guest reviewer idea.  That would go even farther to show that you're running a balanced website and that other folks' opinions are valued.

I would offer to do it (for free), and I might even have enough time for it toward the end of this week.  I use BPFTP on a daily basis, so I'd consider myself an expert there.  I'd have to go out and play with some more servers to get a good idea of how they stack up.  I know Gene6 and BPFTP are quite similar, and I've used Serv-U in the past, but there ought to be a bigger pool of candidates than those three.

[mouser]

tenseiken if you're up for it this week, i'm game.

be prepared for it taking longer to write than you think.  it takes me most of a day to write my reviews and at the end i'm f*cking exhausted..

Of course i will gladly help, in proofing and formatting, etc, and i can send you a blank html "template" that you can use.  when you decide on what program you are convinced is best (or if there is a tie that's ok too), you can let me know and i'll contact the authors/companies about offering a discount, or you can do that as well if you like and i'll just forward you the basic emails i send out describing the process.

[ i think i've got it down quite well now - i used to do a pretty hard sell about why offering a big discount to our members is such a good think; now that we've done it often enough, i think they realize its a good deal for them. and i've decided that we will reserve the "Specials/Spotlight" page only for programs that have won our awards and offer a 50% discount, so this is a real incentive for the company to offer a 50% discount.  this seems to work quite well for everyone ].

i would like to be consulted with your thoughts as you look at the different servers so i can try them out also and give you my opinion.  i have used an ftp server occassionally but not too much, so i will definitely defer to you, but i would like to make sure we are on the same page in terms of some things, like the importance of things beyond just feature set, like ease of use, security, reliability, and  clean interface.  And my one real feature that i would insist on is support for ssl, but i think they all support that now..

if you're up for it, let's go for it, i think it would be a nice subject for review.

[mouser]

some other popular ftp servers:
raidenftpd, http://www.raidenftpd.com/en/ (the interface for this was far to klunky for me last time i tried it)
blackmoon ftp server, http://www.blackmoonftpserver.com/ (this is the one i've used the most and i like it a lot)
glftpd, http://www.glftpd.com/ (open source server for *nix which i hear good things about)
cute's secure ftp server, http://www.cuteftp.com/gsftps/ (looks nice)

[mouser]

ideally it would be great if we could have guest reviewers quite often.
my strategy has been only to review categories that i feel very strongly about and feel i know a fair amount about.
so the ideal situation would be to have a reviewer each week who really knows the area well and feels passionately about it.
so i'm all for guest reviewers.

the only thing i have to make sure about is that the reviews maintain a standard of quality + depth, and at last some continuity in terms of approach to reviewing and evaluating software.

of course i'm not insisting that guest reviewers have the same approach as me - but i don't want guest reviews to seem out of place with the rest of the reviews.  if anyone hasn't read it yet, here is the little thing i wrote up about what i look for in user interfaces: https://www.donation...iews/uithoughts.html .  this is from the awards overview page https://www.donation...ws/Awards/index.html .

the other thing for a reviewer to remember is that the approach on this site has been to make a real recommendation for which program we think is best, considering all things including price.  it's fine to have some ties if programs are really close, but it's important to realize that the purpose is to make a real recommendation so confused users can get some advice on what to buy/use without losing their mind.

i have also been lax in identifying open source alternatives; wherever possible it would be nice to mention the best open source / free ware alternatives (and award them the special open source award if appropriate).

[mouser]

filezilla server and gltpfd are open source and would be worth a mention.

[tenseiken]

I'll be happy to help with this one, but I can't do it this week.  I'm more or less bedridden and more than a little drugged.  Maybe another week?  In the meantime, I'd also like to see opinions on Windows Explorer replacements (Xplorer², Directory Opus, etc.)  I just recently talked myself into buying a license for Directory Opus after finding that I like it much more than Xplorer².  I have you guys to thank for further draining my wallet.  :p

[mouser]

ok sounds good, we'll do ftp server next week maybe.

now for this week..
maybe explorer replacement would be good, though that ones going to be so contentious im not looking forward to it

[zridling]

mouser: "I would have to make sure the reviews maintain a standard of quality + depth, and at last some continuity in terms of approach to reviewing and evaluating software."

That's the key — you'd need to serve as managing editor. If for no other reason to maintain consistency among reviews to meet the "DCC standard" with regard to looks, content, etc. When you consider that a review will have a half-life of 6-12 months before needing to revisit that category, quality and coverage is the key. As for physical exhaustion, I can testify! Even on my site, which has 6-10 capsule reviews and descriptions per update usually twice a month, it takes a minimum of 8-20 hours to complete an update between two versions of the site, the RSS feed, write and edit the reviews, compose the screenshots, notify and communicate with the developers, and that doesn't include the days or weeks spent testing the app itself within the window of its trial period. In other words, it's a labor of love!

[vegas]

I would also like to add Typsoft FTP Server (http://en.typsoft.com/) for next weeks review, a program I only recently discovered.  Not very feature packed, but a good simple way to throw up a quick, stable, easy to use FTP server for free. I have tried many others including BPFTP, Serv-U, Gene6 and others, but they have features not always needed.

[zridling]

Kudos to tenseiken and DCC on another great review. I've no need for an FTP server, but I know people who do, so it was nice to learn from it. Thanks for all the hard work!

[vglass]

For a platform independent server (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Solaris) have a look at JSCAPE Secure FTP Server

http://www.jscape.com/secureftpserver/