Is there a FTP software in Mac ?

OS Xs built in FTP only allows for reading, not writing, so for something free, I recommend Cyberduck: http://cyberduck.ch/

Otherwise, Transmit from Panic is probably the best there is, but is not free.

It does, but as I said, it's for reading only, not writing.

So, can I take it as our Mac doesn't come with a FTP software ?

As "Templeton Peck" wrote, there is Read-Only FTP support from the GUI via the Finder.

If you like Terminal command line stuff, then there is the traditional Unix ftp command.

But for typical FTP use, one of the 3rd party GUI based utilities is easier to use.

CyberDuck is a nice Freeware FTP utility
<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14426>

There are several free and paid ftp utilities. Built-in there is the Finder's ability to mount an ftp share, but as noted you can only download not upload. For UNIX gurus there is Terminal, you can do everything in there with the command line interface. I tried Cyberduck, it seemed great, but I wanted to use it for WebDAV and somehow or other I managed to mess up my stuff on the server. Don't know how that happened, but I decided it either made an error or else it wasn't as intuitive as I thought and I caused the error by doing something wrong. In either case I was unhappy. For regular ftp chores I use Fugu:

http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/

It is fast, reliable, easy to use, Leopard compatible, free, and I have never had the slightest problem with it. I can't say the same for other ftp clients I've tried, and I've tried at least half-a-dozen of them over the years. I used and paid for Transmit, which I liked, until a few months after I paid for it when an Apple OS upgrade broke it, an update for it came out that fixed the compatiblity issues, but I would be required to pay for it again in order to continue to use it in the updated OS. Phooey on that.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

You can use the built-in ftp command line client to upload. You can use sftp to both upload and download, and that's also built into the OS.

Greetings,

Mac OS X has built in FTP software, but its a Terminal thing - it's simple UNIX stuff, which is what I prefer, but some folks like a GUI = Cyber Duck (free) and then there is Transmit (not free), and there are several others.

The UNIX stuff is free, and very simple to use.

Cheers,
M.
****

http://cyberduck.ch/ - free
http://fetchsoftworks.com/ - my choice; long time commercial mac app with solid performance
http://www.panic.com/transmit/ - well respected commercial app

I was looking for a FTP server to run on my MacBook Pro in order to transfer large files with friends and family. I have not found any free FTP servers for OS X. Any recommendations?

There is the built-in FTP server in System Preferences -> Sharing -> File Sharing -> Options -> Share files and folders using FTP.

A search for "ftp server" over at <http://versiontracker.com> turns up a bunch of FTP servers.

MacPorts.org offers several Open Source FTP servers, if you are into the Unix side of the house.

Years ago (like in the Mac OS X 10.2 days), I had been using "PureFTPd" as an FTP server on a work system. I stopped having the need about 5 years ago, so I do not have any current experience with PureFTPd.