Connecting to an FTP Site Using the Connection Dialog

To connect to an FTP site using the connection dialog, do any of the following actions:

When you do any of the above actions, a new dialog box titled, Connect will be displayed.

The Connect dialog has four tabs namely, General, Security, Advanced and Commands. By default, when ever you open the Connect dialog, the General tab gets activated. To activate another tab, just click on the desired tab.

Note In most cases, you just have to fill in the Host Name, User Name and Password in the General tab. All other fields will be filled in with default values (some of them are taken from your global preferences), which will work with most FTP sites.

General Tab

Host Name
Enter the host name or IP address of the FTP site that you wish to connect to. For e.g. ftp.netscape.com.

User Name
To log on to an FTP site, you must identify yourself with a valid user name and password and optionally an account number or account name. In this field, enter the user name that you would like to use for log in. If you are connecting to an anonymous FTP site such as ftp.netscape.com, enter the word anonymous as user name.

Password
Enter your password for logging in to the FTP site. If you are connecting to an anonymous FTP site such as ftp.netscape.com, enter your e-mail address as password.

Port Number
In order to connect to a remote service using TCP/IP, one must know the port number on which the service is running on the remote system. By default, the FTP service runs on port 21. However, this might not be the case all the time. For e.g. if you are connecting through a firewall or, if the FTP site administrator has set a different port for the FTP service. Contact your system administrator or the site's administrator if the default port does not work well for you.

Account
Enter your account number or account name to log in. Most FTP sites do not need account information during log in. However, if your FTP site needs one, enter it here.

Note At this point, you may click on the Connect button to connect to the FTP site, or, click on the Security tab to configure security options.

Security Tab

Click on the Security tab to configure the security options for this FTP connection.

Do Not Use SSL
Select this radio button to use a plain TCP/IP connection. All commands and data will be sent in clear (un-encrypted) when this option is selected.

Use SSL If Available
Select this radio button to tell JFTP to use a secured connection if the server you are connecting to supports SSL. If the server supports SSL, all commands and/or data that is transferred will be encrypted.

Use Explicit SSL
Select this radio button to tell JFTP to use an Explicit SSL connection. This means, after connecting to the FTP server, JFTP will negotiate for an SSL connection and if it succeeds, the plain TCP/IP connection will be transformed into an SSL connection. If the SSL negotiation fails for any reason, the connection will be closed.

Use Implicit SSL
Select this radio button to connect to the FTP server using an implicit SSL connection.

Port Number
Enter the port number to connect to for an Implicit SSL connection. The default port number for Implicit SSL is 990. If your FTP server listens on a port other than the default, enter that port number here.

Do Not Encrypt Data Channel
Select this option to instruct JFTP not to use SSL for transferring actual data such as file transfers and directory listings. With this option selected, only the data sent over command channel gets encrypted. This data includes user name and password.

Note At this point, you may click on the Connect button to connect to the FTP site, or, click on the Advanced tab to configure advanced connect options.

Advanced Tab

The advanced connect options can be set by clicking on the Advanced tab in the Connect dialog.

FTP Client
Select the FTP client that you would like to use for connecting to this FTP site. This drop-down box contains a list of all installed FTP client implementations. You can see the list by clicking on the down arrow of the drop-down box. The default installation of JFTP comes with two different clients:

The Default FTP Client works well with most FTP servers. The AS/400 FTP client is specifically designed for connecting to AS/400 (or iSeries) FTP servers.

List Parser
Select a list parser that you would like to use for this FTP site. This drop-down box contains a list of all installed list parsers. A list parser is a small program used to parse the directory listing produced by an FTP server in response to the LIST command. The default installation of JFTP comes with the following two list parsers:

The Default List Parser works well with most FTP servers that produce UNIX style directory listing. The MS-DOS List Parser is used to parse the DOS/Windows style directory listing.

Initial Local Directory
Enter a valid directory that you would like to set as initial local working directory for this session. Upon connecting to the FTP site, the working directory in the local pane will be changed to the directory you specify here.

Browse...
Use this button to open a file dialog that allows you to browse the local file system and select an existing directory to be used as Initial Local Directory.

Initial Remote Directory
Enter a valid directory that you would like to set as initial remote working directory for this session. Upon connecting to the FTP site, the working directory in the remote pane will be changed to the directory you specify here.

Transfer Data in Passive Mode
To transfer a file using FTP, a data connection needs to be established between your PC and the FTP site. The data connection can be opened in either active or passive modes. In the active mode, the FTP site establishes the data connection to your PC (client). In the passive mode, the PC establishes a connection to the FTP site. The passive mode is helpful if you are behind a firewall and your firewall does not accept incoming connections from computers outside of your network.

Check this check box to transfer data in passive mode. Un-checking this will cause the data to be transferred in active mode.

Note At this point, you may click on the Connect button to connect to the FTP site or, click on the Commands tab to further customize the connect options.

Commands Tab

This tab is provided for the sake of advanced users who are familiar with FTP protocol and site specific features.

Execute the following commands after login
You may request JFTP to execute zero or more FTP commands up on a successful login. A simple example would be, if you want to know what all features an FTP site supports, you issue the HELP command. However, in practical scenarios, you use this feature to alter some site specific parameters such as changing the directory listing style; i.e. whether to list the directory contents in server operating system's proprietary format or to list them in standard UNIX format. In this text area, enter the FTP commands that you would like to execute after login. Make sure to separate each command by a new line.

Connect
Clicking this button validates the input you have provided, closes the Connect dialog and connects to the specified FTP site. If the data you have provided is insufficient or invalid to make a connection an appropriate error message will be displayed.

Cancel
Clicking this button simply closes the Connect dialog. You may also press the Esc key on your keyboard to close the dialog.

Help
Click this button to display this help topic.