I had been using SSHTerm (now called UniTTY, see below) for a long time for my SSH and SFTP needs. The main reason was because it allows you to easily spawn an SFTP process form your current SSH session (and it puts it in a tab). This is SOOOOO handy – how many times do I SSH into my linux box then realize I need to transfer a file? Many times. SSHTerm lets me do both SSH and SFTP with one login.

The bad part: SSHTerm is in Java and is a memory HOG. I also don’t like the UI a whole lot. The buttons are not intuitive at all – even after using it for 2(?) years I still can’t remember what those icons do.

So I was playing with WinSCP the other day – I use it every now and then because I like the UI (in Norton mode) and it’s a native Windows app so it’s not a memory hog. Well, lo and behold, WinSCP has sort of an integration with PuTTY (a great, free, SSH client). Hit Ctrl-P while connected and it pops up a PuTTY terminal. You still have to enter your password but it’s quick. For commands that don’t require user interaction you can even use their built-in terminal by hitting Ctrl-T.

WinSCP just became my #1 SFTP client.

Oh yeah – all the programs I mentioned – SSHTerm, WinSCP, and PuTTY are freeware.

Hmmmmmm…..while getting the link for SSHTerm it looks like they have renamed it to UniTTY (cool name) and added/changed some features. I’ll update this once I’ve taken a look.

And yes I have tried FileZilla and it sucks (IMHO).

UPDATE: UniTTY is pretty nice. Fast startup times, nice GUI. Still takes up 40MB of RAM but it’s speedy. Still has crappy icons. I wish it had dual panes (local and remote).

• WinSCP
• PuTTY
• SSHTerm UniTTY

[tags]geek, software, freeware, ssh, sftp, windows, tips, tricks[/tags]