Alternatives to Filezilla

A section to discuss matters not related to Chess in particular.
User avatar
Carl Hibbard
Posts: 6028
Joined: Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:05 pm
Location: Evesham

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Carl Hibbard » Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:16 pm

Paul McKeown wrote:Nothing to do with capitalism, just the lack of old-fashioned virtues such as honesty, decency and honour.
Lots of 'free' products do it now with Torrent clients being an expected example.
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

MartinCarpenter
Posts: 3044
Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 10:58 am

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by MartinCarpenter » Sat Aug 02, 2014 1:45 pm

Not the versions in the repositories of linux distributions ;) This sort of nonsense is why its past time Windows had something like that (as mobiles, Apple etc all do) and they are seemingly trying. Not getting much traction mind.

I find how much open source has acheived fairly astonishing really. Previous precedents in terms of so much effort being given away for the greater good not greatly obvious to me at least. Lots of tech companies joining in of course.

Paul McKeown
Posts: 3732
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hayes (Middx)

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Paul McKeown » Sat Aug 02, 2014 2:11 pm

FileZilla was a bit more than just some random Torrent, it was pretty much the standard for file transfer on Windows for a decade or more. It would appear, sadly that its devs have lost any sense of moral compass they might once have had.

Reg Clucas
Posts: 602
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 3:45 pm

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Reg Clucas » Tue Aug 19, 2014 2:05 pm

Paul McKeown wrote: ran the installer only to discover that it was trying to install a whole bunch of browser hijacks and other filth.
How did you discover this? - did it ask if you wanted the additional stuff? The auto update downloads from FileZilla aren't bundled with other stuff from SourceForge. But I can't remember whether I was asked about any additional 'features' when I first installed it.

I must admit I have always been a bit uneasy about FileZilla - how do you know, for instance, that it isn't harvesting all your passwords? However the fact that it is so widely used and trusted is reassuring. I suppose if one was very paranoid one could revert to using ftp/sftp from a command line, though this can be rather labour intensive.

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7180
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by John Upham » Tue Aug 19, 2014 2:17 pm

Paolo Casaschi wrote: Could it be that the FileZilla authors are also bitterly disappointed by your cupidity and ethical poverty when using regularly their software for years and never make any donation to their project?
Paolo,

I am curious to know how you are aware of the amount(s) that PM has donated to this project.

J.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Aug 19, 2014 2:20 pm

Reg Clucas wrote:I suppose if one was very paranoid one could revert to using ftp/sftp from a command line, though this can be rather labour intensive.
Windows now has a unix-like command line system called powershell, so writing a script might be an option.
You can get at a DOS style prompt by typing "command" in the Start box, or "powershell" for the unix like version. (This is Windows 7)

User avatar
Paolo Casaschi
Posts: 1187
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2009 6:46 am

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Paolo Casaschi » Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:31 pm

John Upham wrote:
Paolo Casaschi wrote: Could it be that the FileZilla authors are also bitterly disappointed by your cupidity and ethical poverty when using regularly their software for years and never make any donation to their project?
Paolo,

I am curious to know how you are aware of the amount(s) that PM has donated to this project.

J.
Just a wild guess, matching PM's guess on the intentions of the Filezilla authors despite the clear warning/disclaimer on their site.
Wild guess supported by the number of clicks on the donations link of my own open source project: a lot lower than the emails from users asking for help or for new features.

Paul McKeown
Posts: 3732
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hayes (Middx)

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Paul McKeown » Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:30 pm

Paolo Casaschi wrote:PM's guess on the intentions of the Filezilla authors despite the clear warning/disclaimer on their site.
A boring, but entirely predictable see no evil, hear no evil stance, unprepared to allow contrary evidence to sully one's preconceptions.

I will reiterate a point I made:
Paul McKeown wrote:c) that applies irrespective of any warnings you may give on your web-page, particularly when the great green button on that web-page leads you directly to the malware source.
The great green button is the most prominent user interaction on the Failzilla download page, attached to which is the text, "(recommended)". The links to clean are hidden behind a secondary page (yes, really), which is itself linked to in a much less prominent part of the download page. So, it's not as if the Failzilla authors try desperately hard to direct you to untainted software. And their warning refers to "bundled offers", rather than outright malware. Of course, given the horrendously long string of complaints on the Failzilla support site from users who have had to reinstall their operating systems after downloading the tainted installers promoted by the Failzilla authors, responsible authors would have removed links to those tainted installers. But no.

As for the intentions of the Failzillia authors, they make those entirely clear in the relevant threads of their support site: they don't give a damn. But that's alright, your post makes the motivation behind your blind and unthinking support for them clear, too.
Paolo Casaschi wrote:Wild guess supported by the number of clicks on the donations link of my own open source project: a lot lower than the emails from users asking for help or for new features.
You haven't earned enough either from the provision of free software on the Internet! How embarrassing.

Paul McKeown
Posts: 3732
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hayes (Middx)

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Paul McKeown » Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:42 pm

Amazed to find that Filezilla, 11 years later, are still foisting browser hijacks, crapware, adware and malware via their product installer.

Some poor sap asked me to rescue his PC, having downloaded this parasite. No good option but to nuke the PC installation.

15 years and 47 pages of complaints on their forum:
https://forum.filezilla-project.org/sea ... ds=malware

and still not shamed by it.

Michael Flatt
Posts: 1235
Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 7:36 am
Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Michael Flatt » Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:41 pm

On the websites I constructed using Joomla! CMS I find that the 'Profiles' plugin (by Mad4Media) works fine.

I don't recall having had any difficulties with Filezilla on the few occasions that I used it.

Paul McKeown
Posts: 3732
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hayes (Middx)

Re: Alternatives to Filezilla

Post by Paul McKeown » Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:45 pm

Depends how you install it. Use their default installer and miss the checkbox, then you're in a world of woe.

I use WinSCP, which does the job cleanly, no fuss.