Connecting to a Server (FTP / SFTP)

Folders on a server open in a pane just like folders on your PC, so you can move things back and forth in the usual two-pane layout without launching a separate transfer program.

You register servers and test connections in the Sites view in the navigation pane (see 2-2); once a folder is open, working with it is much the same as working locally.

• Registering a server: Give it a name, host, port, user name, authentication method (password or private key), and an initial folder. Leave the port blank to use the default for the protocol you picked (22 for SFTP, 21 for FTP, 990 for FTPS). Leave the display name blank and the host name is used as-is; leave the user name blank and FTP connects anonymously. The button at the bottom runs a connection test so you can confirm it works right there.

• Opening a folder: Double-click a row in the Sites view, or use the open-folder button, and the server's folder appears in the active pane. Opening folders, going up a level, and jumping to a level from the breadcrumb all work as they do locally. The right-click menu can open it too.

• You can always tell which pane is remote — the server name appears at the start of the breadcrumb, so there is no operating on a server while believing you are local.

• Downloading: Select files on the server side and copy them to the other pane. Whole folders can be brought over at once. Progress is shown along the bottom of the window.

• Working on the server: You can upload, delete, rename, and create folders. The operations are the same as local ones, but undo (Ctrl+Z) does not apply to the server side — servers have no equivalent of an undo log, so there is no way to bring back something that has been deleted. Deletions ask for confirmation first.

• Permissions: File and folder permissions on the server can be changed from the right-click menu.

• Character encoding: FTP servers differ in how they encode file names. If names come out garbled, set the encoding on the registration screen. (SFTP is always UTF-8, so there is nothing to set.)

• How your credentials are handled

• Passwords and passphrases are stored so that only this Windows user can decrypt them. Carrying the settings file to another PC or user account will not decrypt, and you will be asked to enter them again.

• Private keys are not copied — only their location is remembered. Duplicating key material just creates more copies to hunt down and delete later.
• On the first SFTP connection the host key fingerprint is shown for you to approve, and the approved fingerprint is recorded. If a different key turns up later, the connection is stopped. It may only mean the server was rebuilt, but it can also mean the destination has been substituted, and only you can tell those apart.
• FTPS certificates are verified, and there is no setting to accept them unconditionally.

• Connections are opened when you actually use them and closed automatically after a period of inactivity (nothing happens at startup, and a connection in the middle of a transfer is never dropped).

• Where it differs from local folders: files on a server do not exist on this PC, which leads to the following differences.

	Folders on a server
Icons	The standard ones, decided by name and extension
Thumbnails	Not fetched (each one would trigger a download)
Picking up changes made by other programs	Not done — refresh manually
Opening by double-click	Not available — bring the file to your PC first
Undo (Ctrl+Z)	Does not apply

A failed connection is never shown as an empty folder. The reason is always displayed.

• Licensing: Connecting to a server is a Pro feature.

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The Sites view and working in a pane

• Sites View: Register SFTP, FTP, and FTPS servers and verify that they connect.

  Each row shows the server name and its address in sftp://user@host form. The icon at the start of the row distinguishes encrypted connections (SFTP / FTPS) from plain FTP.

  The buttons along the bottom open, add, edit, test, and delete entries. Double-clicking a row opens it in the pane you are working in.

  Right-click menu: Right-clicking a row offers "Open in pane / Open in pane A / Open in pane B / Edit site / Test connection / Delete". The row you right-clicked becomes the selected one. Right-clicking empty space offers "Add site / Refresh list".

  Registering from the address bar: You do not have to open this view at all — type sftp://user@host/path straight into a pane's address bar.

  • If the connection is not registered yet, "Add connection" opens with what you typed already filled in (protocol, host, port, user and folder). Enter the password, save, and that folder opens.
  • If it is registered, it just opens.
  • If the form cannot be read, the app tells you which part it could not read (how the port is written, a missing host, a password that cannot go in an address, and so on).

  • Type three characters or more and any saved connection whose name, host or address matches appears below as a suggestion. Press ↓ to move into the list and Enter, or click, to open it; Esc closes the list.

  • Passwords and passphrases are stored so that only this Windows user can decrypt them. Settings carried over to another PC or user account cannot be decrypted, so you will need to re-enter them there.

  • Private keys are never copied — only the file location is remembered.
  • Leaving Port empty uses the standard port for the selected protocol (22 for SFTP, 21 for FTP, 990 for FTPS).
  • Leaving Display name empty uses the host name as the name.
  • Leaving User name empty connects as anonymous FTP.

  Host key check: The first time you connect over SFTP, the fingerprint the server presented is shown for your approval. Confirm that it matches the one your administrator gave you before approving. The approved fingerprint is recorded and you will not be asked again. If a key ever differs from the recorded one, the connection is stopped — the server may simply have been rebuilt, but the connection may also have been redirected to another machine. If you have no reason to expect the change, do not connect.

  Opening in a pane: Double-click a row, or use the open button, and the server's folder appears in the pane you are working in. Entering folders, going up a level (Backspace), and jumping to a level from the breadcrumb work just as they do for local folders.

  A pane showing a remote folder is marked in three ways:

  • The tab icon becomes a server icon.
  • A protocol badge (SFTP / FTP / FTPS) appears at the start of the address bar.
  • The pane gets an accent-colored outline.

  Plain FTP alone is shown in a warning color, because it sends passwords and file contents unencrypted — it does not get to look like SFTP or FTPS. Panes showing local folders are unchanged.

  • Because the files have no local counterpart on this PC, icons come from the name and extension and thumbnails are never fetched (each one would trigger a download). For the same reason the folder is not watched for changes made by other applications.
  • A folder that could not be reached is never shown as an empty one. The reason is reported instead.
  • Double-clicking a remote file does not open it. Bring it to your PC first.
  • Features that read and write local files directly — Grep search, CSV / Excel export, hash calculation, and so on — are unavailable on remote paths (running them stops with an explanation).

  Bringing files to your PC: Drag from a pane showing a remote folder onto a pane showing a local one. Choosing a folder brings its whole contents.

  • Progress is measured in bytes rather than file count, so a single large file does not look stuck.
  • When a file of the same name already exists you can overwrite, keep both, or skip — the same confirmation used for local copies.
  • Timestamps are taken from the server, so files sort in their original order rather than by when you fetched them.
  • A file that failed or was cancelled part-way is deleted, so a half-sized file is never left behind as if it had arrived.
  • Once finished, Ctrl+Z undoes the transfer.
  • If a name the server returned cannot be used as a Windows file name (contains .., uses forbidden characters, and so on), that item alone is skipped and the count is reported.

  Uploading: Drag from a local pane onto a pane showing a remote folder. Choosing a folder sends the whole tree, creating intermediate folders as needed. The same-name confirmation, the byte-level progress, and the clean-up after a failure all work as they do for downloads.

  Deleting: Press Delete, or use the right-click menu.

  • Files do not go to a Recycle Bin, and deletion cannot be undone. Servers have no Windows Recycle Bin, so the confirmation says so plainly.

  Renaming: Press F2, or edit the name inline in the list. Ctrl+Z undoes it (it runs over the network, so it is not waited on at the moment you press it).

  Creating a folder: Unlike local folders, the app asks for the name first. Locally it creates a default-named folder and then renames it, but doing that remotely costs two round trips — three if you cancel and it has to be deleted — and on a slow link that difference is pure waiting.

  Server-to-server transfers are not supported. Bring the files to your PC first, then send them.

  Resuming interrupted transfers: If the connection breaks mid-transfer, the app resumes from what was already received (or sent).

  • It retries up to three times per file, with a growing pause between attempts.
  • Only connection-side failures are retried. No permission, no such path, or a failed login are given up on immediately, since the result would be the same every time.
  • When resuming an upload, the app asks the server how much actually landed before sending the rest.

  Changing permissions: Select remote items, right-click, and choose "Change permissions".

  • Read / write / execute for owner, group, and others are toggled in a grid.
  • The dialog shows both the numeric form (644) and the symbolic form (rw-r--r--), because administrators quote either one.
  • It can be applied to a multi-item selection. The current value is re-read from the server each time the dialog opens.

  File name encoding (FTP only): Each site can be set to Automatic, UTF-8, or Shift_JIS. Automatic is correct for most servers. Change it only when a server that does not advertise UTF-8 garbles non-ASCII file names. The setting does not apply to SFTP, where names are always UTF-8.