ftp editing alternative? "M$ Services For Unix 3.5"

[smeo00]

Not really a textpad tip per se but worth a mention I think...

I, like many others have been hoping in vain for ftp editing support in textpad.

The best alternative I have come across so far is to use SFU 3.5.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsservers ... fault.mspx

I am fortunate enough to work in a NIS/NFS environment and with SFU I can mount my NIS account as a drive on my XP box. SFU includes an NFS client which when configured to match your NFS network settings will show any NFS shares in My Network Places>Entire Network>NFS Network.

For me this removes the need for ftp editing as I can directly open/edit files from the mounted drive. It has the added advantage of being supported, for free, by Microsoft! (yeah I know, suprised me too!?)

The setup is fairly technical and I am not going to rabbit on about settings unless anyone asks (pls ask your sys admin first ).

You will need to know your UID, GID, nis server (you can use mapping to map you windows domain info to nis domain info) pay attention to file perms too. IF THESE THINGS MEAN NOTHING TO YOU DONT GO HERE!!!

Smeo00.

[troels_kn]

While not free, I can recommend webdrive, which I have been using for years. It allows you to mount an FTP account as a drive at your system. Works with SFTP too.

[Bob Hansen]

I decided to remove webdrive some years ago.

I don't recall all of the issues, but I do remember cautioning myself not to use it. I probably have some old notes with more details. I seem to think that it was installing unwanted programs in background, possibly malware?

Unfortunate because I did like the features that were available. Perhaps the newer versions don't have that problem.

[troels_kn]

I actually used to use Internet Neighborhood from KnoWare, but after they closed down, I switched to Webdrive (On their recommendation). I haven't had any such issues with it - Maybe they changed between the time, where you uninstalled it, and I installed it?

One annoying thing though, is that the SFTP certificates isn't compatible with putty's format. So you have to use Webdrive's own built-in agent to generate a key.

[Fredkc]

Webdrive is a newer commercial program.

There was an older program written for Novell called Netdrive. I have been using it on my XP Pro machine with great success. It makes a connection to a remote ftp server and maps a drive letter to it.

Once done you can open/edit/save files on a remote server with no problem. You can also use regular file explorer to move/copy files back and forth. By mapping my server to drive R: I can move/copy/edit files there, even open a DOS box and go to drive R:, I love it.

The version I am using did not require entering any license, key, or anything else. Simply run the install. There are copies of it still laying about on the Internet, though they are getting harder to find.

You should also know that the program will not work if you are running Vista. Micro$not added some "feature" to Vista in their first Svc Pak which prevents NetDrive from working.

There is a commercial program out there called NetDrive which you can get here: http://www.netdrive.net/

I notice under "System Requirements" there that:
Operating System : Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista(32bit, Vista 64bit will be added soon)
So it looks like they are still scratching their heads to find a workaround to Micro$not mischief too.

If you go to their purchase page, and look over on the right hand side, you will see a download link which states "free for single home use".

Good Luck,
Fred