WS-FTP Home
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
$34.95, Ipswitch Inc.
www.ipswitch.com
File this review under the heading, “Things I need that I didn’t know I needed.”
File transfer protocol predated the Internet as the way early users of computer file sharing did their stuff. It was supplanted big time by HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol), which works through the now-ubiquitous Web browsers on all of our computers.
Ironically, FTP has made a fine comeback now that many Internet users find themselves wanting to share huge files, like movies, photographs and MP3 music.
Updated for today’s home users, the long-established WS-FTP software can streamline file swapping among millions of people with Web storage accounts at places like EarthLink, Yahoo, Comcast, AOL and others.
With a computer connected to the Internet, WS-FTP opens by displaying side-by-side panes, with the content of the hard drive on the left and the content of whatever Web site is accessed on the right.
The result is a transfer of very large files much faster than can be accomplished using e-mail attachments, since e-mail gets bogged down using SMTP (simple mail transport protocol).
Don’t let all these acronyms bog you down. Focus on the fact that you can easily share full-size photos instead of those tiny copies used by most e-mail software.
Other users of the Web benefit as well. FTP makes it far easier to maintain blogs (Web logs) by letting users rapidly upload new material, including rich content like sounds, movies and artwork.
An FTP site can hold photos of items one offers for sale on eBay. And if you really mean it when you say you just want to share your MP3 files with a single friend, it’s a superior way to offer and acquire music.
MAGAZINES
Playlist joins iPod revolution
Look for the arrival on Tuesday of Playlist, a new magazine dedicated to the iPod revolution, which has transformed America into a land of folks with ever-larger headphones and ever-smaller amounts of eye contact.
From the publishers of MacWorld and focused on Apple’s iPod, Playlist also will cover other gadgets. But will it go the way of Hula Hoop World and Pet Rock Daily? Drop the buds and find out.
MICROSOFT
Messenger totes more messages
We should have seen it coming.
Kids (and non-kids) now can go to http://webmessenger .msn.com and download a new Microsoft Web plug-in that permits users to exchange instant messages through computers with Web browsers at schools, libraries and elsewhere.
Heretofore, instant messaging required special software that needed to run separately. Kids now can link with a Web browser to friends with cell phones and other IM gear. You need nothing more than a Microsoft .NET password and the ability to talk in abbreviations, like POS (parent over my shoulder) or LOL (laughing out loud).
B4N (bye for now).
