Windows – Default Installed FTP Client

ftpwindows

I am distributing a product that allow some access using FTP. I am looking for a simple way to connect to that service from the most generic Windows box. Installing an external ftp client, makes the process of connecting to my product more tricky than I like it to be.

So my question is:

Is there an ftp client that can do all of the following:

  • connect on a non standard port.
  • authenticate with username and password.
  • upload a file.

Here is what I already tried:

  • I had no success uploading a file with Internet Explorer.
  • I had no success authenticating using Windows Explorer.
  • I had no success connecting to a non standard port with ftp command from the command line.

Am I missing something?

Edit: My bad. Apparently I was hitting the max_connection limit on my server. So the answer for my question is: Windows Explorer do all of the above.

Best Answer

You can authenticate with Internet Explorer by including the credentials in the URL, however it will prompt for username and password if you don't enter them.

ftp://username:password@host.example.com/path/to/files

I haven't tried it but I would expect a non-standard port to be specified in the usual way

ftp://username:password@host.example.com:10021/path/to/files

You can specify a port on the command line like this

C:\> ftp
ftp> open host.example.com 10021

UPDATE: The Windows explorer address bar usually shows drive letter and path (e.g. C:\somewhere) but you can type in a URL like those above, it can then be used as a drag&drop target for uploading a file to an FTP server.

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