The Internet is full of software gems, no doubt about it. The problem is, of course, that when you’re on the lookout for one specific piece of software, it’s not so hard to find it. But when you’re constantly (and mostly passively) trying to improve your own personal armada of tools, it’s sometimes hard to recall what you’re lacking or looking for.
So, while checking out the latest on the SmoothWall website, one click led to another, and then I had the WinSCP website in front of me. It’s one of those tools that just .. well, works. Finding good and free SCP/SFTP/SSH-software for Linux isn’t all that difficult, things are a little different in the world of Windows. Not that I mind paying for good software, I really don’t. But having free alternatives can’t be a bad thing. WinSCP does what most Windows users would expect from an FTP-client, and a lot more. More importantly, it allows you to do it in a secure fashion; connecting to the server using encrypted sessions.
For a plain vanilla SSH-shell client for Windows, PuTTY still rocks, of course. It too features an SCP-client, and it too is free.
VanDyke is also in the business of providing good and solid tools for secure data transfers in the Windows environment. They’ve been around for quite some time, measured in Internet time 🙂 Their stuff is commercial, but well worth the money. Their SecureCRT and SecureFX products are outstanding and very affordable.
In a previous post, I discussed tab add-ons for PuTTY: PuTTY with Tabs.