Map ftp site to drive letter in WinExplorer possible with FZ

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thoste · #1 Post by **thoste** » 2006-08-25 09:25

I have seen an interesting ftp software (but only for a speciality):

WebDrive (see http://www.webdrive.com/)

It can map ftp sites to a drive letter in my WindowsExplorer.
When mapped I can access the remote ftp site through
e.g. drive K:\

Is something similar available in FileZilla ?

if not: Is something similar planned ?

#2 Post by **botg** » 2006-08-25 18:47

Not possible and not recommended, FTP has not been designed for this.

#3 Post by **boco** » 2006-08-25 20:27

Novell Netdrive is another program allowing this. But, as botg already stated, FTP protocol has not been designed for such operation. Expect a lot of problems.

boco

thoste · #4 Post by **thoste** » 2006-08-26 12:35

Interesting.

What do you mean with "expect a lot of problems" ?

Are problems your personal experience or did you about only ?

#5 Post by **boco** » 2006-08-26 13:01

These programs simulate a local drive and 'translate' your actions to FTP commands and vice versa. If you get problems or not, depends on the FTP server software used. I said 'Expect a lot of problems', not 'You will run into problems'. It is possible that it will run perfectly on your machine.

The problems can arise as not all FTP servers follow the RFC. Some support more features/commands, some not. Problems you could run into are

1. Date and Time issues

- If the FTP server does not support MLSD, retrieving file's times from files older than 1 month is not possible, it is always 00:00:00

- If you copy files to this drive (upload to FTP), files dates and times are most possibly not retained. This is not (officially) supported by FTP.

2. UNICODE and character conversion problems

- There could be problems converting non-US chars when the FTP server supports no UNICODE and the OEM codepages of your system and the servers' are different (different languages/countries etc.)

- Even with UNICODE supported there could be issues as some FTP servers do not obey standards.

Try it, if it works for you, congratulations. But it's not guaranteed.

boco

thoste · #6 Post by **thoste** » 2006-08-26 15:08

Ok, I understand. BUT the problems you wrote are only on the SERVER side.
Hence they could occur with FileZilla Client as well.

In other words: If NetDrive has the problems then FileZilla Client will have the problems too.

Am I right?

#7 Post by **botg** » 2006-08-26 16:12

Worse is, if you browse files in explorer, explorer and most shell extensions try to extract information out of the files, for example icons for executables, dimensions of pictures and so on.
If you try to do that over FTP you'll end up with a lot of bandwidth used just for these information. And FTP hasn't been designed for that.

#8 Post by **boco** » 2006-08-27 16:05

@thoste

You should use WebDAV if you must do this.

boco