Review: yFTP (9300 & 9500)
Score:
70%
Version Reviewed: 2.32
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The Internet is not the World Wide Web. There’s more to the connected computers of this world than web pages, and you’d be a fool and a communist to think otherwise. You all probably use email (although if you stick to Gmail and Hotmail you might be forgiven in thinking that email is all about using a web browser). If a computer can access the Internet, then there’s a whole range of protocols, programs and potential fun and games that can be had.
So congratulations to Yellow Computing, as they have pitched in with yFTP, which gives you one of the main building blocks of the internet. Copying files from one computer to another. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. Nowadays it’s most often used to get files up to a web server, but it’s also possible to log into servers from outside a web browser to store large files for others to get hold of (e.g. a Linux distro), move images around, backup information on your machine… It’s a general-purpose tool - for those that tinker it’s a great little tool to have on your smartphone.
Let’s take a look at yFTP on the 9500 (although versions are also available for Series 60 and UIQ).
You’d be mistaken for thinking that this was the built in File Manager on your Communicator – look closer and you’ll see that rather than just directories on the left and files on the right, the left hand side lists a single folder on your Communicator (files and folders). The right hand side shows the files and folders on your FTP server. Tab, as you'd expect, switches the focus between the two sides.
Moving files from one computer to the other (in both directions) is a matter of highlighting the file or files you want to move and then hitting the command button marked Upload (or Download, if you’re copying from the FTP server). Using the interface is easy – Yellow have remembered the rule to ‘keep it simple’. The only problem I do have is one or two things that I expected to work that didn’t. You can’t page up or page down through a file list, so it can take some time to navigate a long list – and you can’t jump to a filename by pressing the initial letter.
Setting up details of an FTP server on your Communicator is just as easy – one dialog, which asks for all the information, is presented when you first try to connect. These settings are saved, and if you set up another server, then all the servers are stored so you can access them quickly, without having to remember the path names and passwords!
YFTP does exactly what it says on the tin. If you're one of those people who need FTP on your Communicator (and it’s a joy to use over Wi-Fi on the 9500) then Yellow Computing have filled your niche. Go register it as soon as you can.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at