One of my favourite (notice the Canadian spelling, Hey) FTP client is TRANSMIT with Cyberduck closing in rapidly (the nostalgic years of Fetch belong to the past). There is also YummyFTP and the nice and free open source FUGU. 

There is a pretty extensive list here of a lot of FTP and SFTP Mac servers and clients. The key is that they support native Mac OSX SSH authentification for smoother integration with your distant machine.

Transmit will allow you to synchronize two destinations very well. Since most Web software already have addressed the”sync” dilemma, let me show you how I use Transmit to sync my laptops (I have three, two MacBooks and one 17″ PowerBook, told you I love Macs) with my 20″ iMac.

First, you should know that I think we never have enough security. Jonathan thinks I’m overdoing it in general. It seems the more you learn about computers and networks, the more you dread the obvious—your data is not safe.So, go into System Preferences of any of your remote computers containing the files you want synchronized and enable “Remote Login” and “FTP Access”. Remote Login will activate an alternate Terminal based access for those of you who are handy with UNIX (ssh user@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) but hey you already knew that. It will also allow us commoners to access the remote computer via SFTP, a “safer” FTP protocol. I know that I’m overdoing it for my example since I’m on a local network. But imagine building all these nice “safe” habits and not having to think next time you will be in a noisy public place…

Once this is done, obtain the IP address of your remote computer (System Preferences, Network, TCP/IP) and make sure you know a valid user and password for that machine. You’re ready to sync (and yes I know about Carbon Copy Cloner but I did not get it to work right off the bat and that bugs me and there is also Retrospect  but in general, I tend to sway towards simplicity and this about Transmit anyhow).

Start Transmit, build a favourite for your remote access (provide user, password, folder path, and pick SFTP as the file transfer protocol) connect, select the source and destination folders you want to synchronize and pick the method you prefer (in my case it’s almost always “download” and “update” since I am claiming back files from my laptops to my iMac). Bear in mind that whatever local address you set in your Transmit favourite for that remote computer in this particular case, it will most likely change if you have multiple computers on your network and you dis/reconnect them once in a while. In general people accept default DHCP for their Routers. The beauty of dynamic IP addresses is their very essence—they have a tendency to change.

I’ll tell you more about what I do in other posts so you know why I have so many laptops. You are now ready to synchronize to your heart’s content.

There are two other features that you might use in the action. The “Preview” button allows you to see PDF, jpeg, gif, png, etc. on the remote system. Neat little feature. The other one is the report Transmit compiles at the end of the synchronization session. Save it and go through it rapidly to make sure everything went as planned.Transmit also offers Automator workflow possibilities (let me know if you ever use Automator, honest please). As we have seen it has SSL, an essential remote access prerequisite for Internet Cafés and anything goes public access.

I really like the interface, I can’t imagine how it could be made simpler. If you’re like me and trust your intuition for digging into a new software (i.e. no reading) you will feel at home quickly for the basic file transmission operations.

Finally, you have the possibility to connect to iDisk. I’m using the .mac service for an additional (yet another) storage area, the glamourous .mac mailing address and because of the numerous trips I make in a year. I know you can share all sorts of pictures with the rest of the world, you can create movies and publish them there and you can even produce your own web site with iWeb and get it up and running in no time. I use the Mac essentially to work remember.

My pictures are private (except for those I published on JPGMagazine and GooglePages ) and I’ve produced so many web sites since the beginning of the web that I lack the inspiration to build one for fun (except for this one, but it is all automated so where’s the challenge?). ((Aside on the aside, I guess one is allowed to get sidetracked in a personal blog, it goes with the turf and that was such a nice demonstration of that instance.))

Since I started on an FTP client discourse, I might as well point out another nice little utility you might need to enhance your Mac’s productivity. Whatsize  enables you to measure file sizes of entire folders very neatly and applying filters to the indexed results. I often find myself having to locate quickly the biggest files on a given hard disk. That’s the ticket.I have to leave some room for Jonathan so you can enjoy his Mac server review. Bye for now and feel free to write to us and comment in this beautiful Web 2.0 world wide web…