If you have a blog or a web site you will be regularly updating it with content such as images, files, videos etc. There are various ways in which you can update your web site. Here are 5 utilities which make uploading content easy for you and best of all these utilities are free.

The utilities are of two different types one which supports the regular File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and another which supports Secure Copy (SCP) which is more secure than transferring files using FTP. The list also includes two command line tools.

FileZilla

FileZilla is one of the most popular FTP clients around and I started using it around 5 years ago. FileZilla works on Windows NT4, 2000 and XP. It is a light weight client and can be used to manage all of your web sites from one client.

You can easily set up a new web site with FileZilla. To add a new web site go to the File -> Site Manager option

In that add your site hostname and any special port if required. Choose the server type, by default it should be FTP. In the logon type if the server allows Anonymous access then do not change logon type or else choose the other options available. I choose normal where I enter and store the username and password.

You also have an option to specify a default directory where FileZilla local file browser should point to when connecting to a web site. To do this go to advanced options and key in the path to your directory in default local directory box, you can also specify the default directory remote directory that should be opened up when a connection is made to a site.

That’s it you are all set now you can simply drag and drop your files to your FTP directory directly from your computer. It also supports several features such as ability to resume uploads/downloads, firewall support, drag and drop support etc

Download FileZilla Client

FireFTP

For those who just do not want to move away from Firefox there is a nifty tool that will allow you upload files from within the browser itself. FireFTP is a free, secure, cross platform FTP client that works with Firefox.

The reason this is a beauty of a tool is that it brings a entire different application right within the browser. Highly recommended if you are a Firefox user.

The UI for the FireFTP looks similar to a two panel windows explorer and you can easily drag and drop files between the windows. Adding a site is easy too. To add a site just click on manage account and select new, a new window will pop up where you have to enter the FTP details

You can set up local and remote directories in the connection tab. The keep directories in sync while navigating option will automatically choose the local or remote directory to match the one that is selected by you.

Once you have setup the web site information you can start using the FireFTP client to transfer the files to your web site.

Download FireFTP Firefox Addon

SmartFTP

SmartFTP is another one of the free options which allow you to upload and download the files to and from your local PC and web site. With SmartFTP you can schedule your uploads and downloads, cache remote directories on your local PC, use a command line FTP tool, remotely edit your files without having to download them etc.

It also provides you with file and folder synchronization and supports International Domain Names which contain foreign characters in their domains.

You can also use the backup tools to backup your important web site files.

Download SmartFTP

WinSCP

WinSCP is a windows client that allows you to transfer files securely between two computers. The WinSCP client supports SFTP and SCP protocols over SSH-1 and SSH-2 and can also be used as a plain FTP client.

It sports two different transfer interface. It has a Windows Explorer based navigation and also a Norton Commander based navigation. You can also use it as a standalone client for portable devices.

The application also has a inbuilt editor for files which can be invoked by pressing the F4 button, this is pretty decent feature as it allows me to quickly update files without having to download them to my local PC.

In addition WinSCP also provides synchronization features between the local and remote files.

Download WinSCP

PSCP

Coming back to the plain old CLI (command line interface), PSCP is a real live saver while uploading files to Linux based servers. PSCP does not require you to install any software, you just need to store the executable in a folder on your local machine and use it via Command prompt.

Download a copy of PSCP and place it on any drive of your windows machine, assuming you copied the file to C:pscp.exe.

• Open a command prompt in your windows machine.
• If PSCP is not in your classpath you can run command to add it set PATH=%PATH;C:downloads.
• Navigate to your folder where you have the file placed to upload, assuming you have placed it in C:upload, type cd C:upload.
• Issue this command C:pscp.exe filename.extension username@domainname.com:directory/subdirectory -pw password.

That’s it using the simple command you can directly upload the file using a command prompt, easy isn’t it.

Download PSCP

What is your favorite software to upload files to your web site. Are there any more better software’s that can be used to do this? Do let me know through your valuable comments. I would definitely like to try something better.