Web conferencing products have many capabilities that will be valuable to your organization. They can facilitate the way you conduct business, leading to more savings and better management, all which will contribute positively to your bottom line. But in order to maximize the benefits of web conferencing, one must choose the right tools. Because various products have different strengths, you should keep a few things in mind as you select these tools.

Different web conferencing programs are created for different tasks. Thus, knowing what your organization needs is the first step in the selection process and an integral part in successfully implementing and integrating the software as part of your business.
Web conferencing products can be basically categorized into four main groups. Firstly, there are those products that are used for General Business Communications. These products are all-inclusive meaning their capabilities are multi-faceted yet integrated. For example, they can host meetings, do broadcasts, hold training sessions and perform customer service and support tasks.

Another group of products can help you in designing Collaboration Strategies. These products are geared more towards meetings and work which requires a high level of collaboration between various teams. They focus more on the specific functions required by small to medium enterprises. Project Management Focus software meantime allows people to map out how one task leads to another and who is doing what on a particular project. This is ideal for projects that require the collaboration of different databases and run in different locations. Finally Training tools are interactive programs where web conferencing can be used as a training medium.

To begin with, it is important to determine exactly what it is you intend to achieve with a certain tool. You should know the end result that has to be accomplished. You should also ask yourself the sort of activities one intends to carry out to meet these goals. For example, will you require a brainstorming session or a presentation lecture? It is also important to know the number of people you will need to connect with. Will you be delivering your presentation to a small or large group of people? Once you have determined this, it will also be helpful to know what sort of computers the people you intend to conference with have. Having this information can help you decide if you will pursue software that can support different types of computers or operating systems. Similarly, having an idea of the type of Internet connection the attendees of your conference have can help you eliminate some conferencing solutions. For example if many of your participants have dial-up connections, you may choose to no longer consider those conferencing tools that will work only with high-speed connections.

You will also need to decide if you want a web conferencing program that you can purchase and install on your computers or if you will opt to pay for the service each month. A web conferencing provider may be ideal as this can liberate you from the technical matters and you can concentrate on your presentations and deliveries.

Choosing the latter option however opens up a new set of questions to consider: choosing a web conferencing provider. Here are a few helpful guidelines to aid you in this phase of the selection process. Providers offer services at price per minute formulas or at a flat rate. Most experts agree that a flat rate can offer the same level of functionality. You should look for openings that will let you call conferences as many times as you want without suffering extra costs. It may also maximize the potential of the concept of web conferencing if you select a provider that offers Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP allows you to make long distance calls over the Internet, making your sessions more fruitful than if they were conducted only through text chat. It is also important to choose a provider that gives you easy access to customer service in case you run into technological glitches. The degree of interaction your vendor or provider takes in setting you up and guiding you through your web conferencing journeys will keep you from getting lost in this rapidly expanding sector of the computer industry.

Whatever you decide, you should always make sure to try the technology before actually committing and purchasing it. A mere demo on how the technology works may not be sufficient to give you an idea of how well the tool works or more specifically how the tool will work for you.
Choosing a conferencing provider such as GoToMeeting which offers a free trial period is a good way to be sure you choose the right option. A GoToMeeting Promo Code can be applied to increase the trial period or receive an additional discount.

Heavy Rain, a newer release for the PS3, has been widely speculated upon for a long time up until its recent release. Now that the game is out, you may find yourself asking what the fuss is about. Well, you will be pleasantly surprised. This game is definitely a change of pace as it is unlike anything else out on the market.

Heavy Rain is not your typical game. This game is about a story and watching it unravel. It isn’t about leveling up or recruiting teammates. It is a psychological thriller revolving around a hunt for a criminal called the Origami Killer. The mystery of the game unravels as you follow the story of 4 characters whose paths intertwine. Each of these people has their own story and path to follow as they each try to find clues leading to the Origami Killer. They all have their own perspectives, actions, and decisions that affect the path of the game.

The first character is Ethan, a troubled father whose son has gone missing and will soon be the next victim of the Origami Killer. Ethan must go through a series of trials the Origami Killer has left for him in order to get clues as to his son’s location. The other three characters that you will play are an investigative journalist, a private investigator, and an FBI profiler.

As you go through the game, you’ll switch between the 4 characters as you look for clues and try to track down the criminal. As you play, on screen prompts will appear letting you choose one decision or another. Some of these decisions seem simple enough, like whether or not to let your son win at a game. Other decisions will leave you biting your nails while trying to decide what is best, like deciding whether or not to fire your gun. These decisions in fact will dramatically impact the game in some situations. How they will impact the game depends on all of the other decisions you made previously. The possibilities seem almost endless.

It is possible for your characters to die in the game. If a character dies, due to some decision you made, you will just move on to the other characters. However, you won’t see the entire story, you won’t be able to get all of the clues, and you will only see the remaining character’s perspectives. It is actually possible for all of the characters to die! In this case… you probably will get a bad ending to the game. Speaking of endings, this game has multitudes of them. The ending you see will be decided on what decisions you made and what paths you chose.

Heavy Rain goes through chapters. Although it is possible to replay chapters to see different outcomes, I would suggest just playing all of the way through. The game can be beaten in about eight or nine hours. If you want to see another ending, play through it again and make different decisions! The replay value is high as there are so many paths to take and outcomes to see!

This game is slow to get going, but once it starts you won’t want to put the controller down. The story is intense and emotional. You literally watch as your decisions shape the story around you. The onscreen prompts sound as if they may be annoying, but they actually flow with the story seamlessly. You really will feel like you are right there in the story!

The soundtrack has a tempo that fits the mood of the game superbly. The voice acting is good, but the dialog itself is excellent and well written. As for the graphics, well let’s just say you can tell what the characters are thinking based on their facial expressions! In fact, the visuals are quite impressive and well ahead of its time.

If you want to play a game unlike any other, then this is the game for you. Never has there been a game so captivating and enthralling as Heavy Rain. Nor has there been a game that has looked this good in a while!

Heavy Rain is available for the Playstation 3. It has an ESRB rating of M for mature. This is because the game features intense violence, blood, strong language, sexual content, nudity, and use of drugs.

HeavyRain is available at Newegg.com for $56.99 with free shipping.

Data recovery refers to the recovery of information that is lost because of physical injuries such as damaged disks and tapes or an impaired system. There is lots of free software for data recovery that anybody can download and use.

There are a variety of ways to lose files and data: when formatting, while installing a new operating system, when deleting by mistake and virus corruption. In all computers these problems can occur at any time.

You can best guard against data loss by pro-actively managing your system. You should always have a back-up system for your critical data. When the unthinkable does occur, having the backup will surely simplify the situation.

There are several ways of recovering lost and damaged files. If the lost information is a really urgent matter, the best thing to do is bring your issue directly to the data recovery businesses that possesses the professionals to get the job done.

However, if you believe you are smart enough to know what to do and you have technical computer and storage device knowledge, then you have two choices: buy the data recovery software package or go online and download a free data recovery program.

Some data recovery programs are free to use, while others can be costly. Software packages may cost a lot however they can actually have many advantages (such as support) for the user. People might ask for donations for downloading free recovery software.

What should you do if you accidently format your drive without the data saved in backup?

The service providers for data recovery will provide the data recovery service for their client only. Disk-swap activities should be avoided in order to prevent further data damage.

It is recommended to not download the install recovery software on the same computer. You’ll need to move to a different PC, download the file to a flash drive and, then, run it straight from there.

It is also suggested that you avoid sharing recovered files on the same hard drive.

There are many online programs that offer free data recovery. Should any issues occur while downloading or installing the program, press the cancel or stop button. This is a possible indication of a malfunction in your hardware.

Be sure to do a little research before you think of downloading free recovery software to deal with the information that was lost. Always keep caution in the forefront of your mind when dealing with freeware, to avoid any more issues.

Don’t be taken in by sites that offer free data recovery programs; they are often malware. In other cases they may claim the program doesn’t cost anything however you will soon learn that these are only demo versions and eventually you must buy the actual program to have the advantages or extra features. There are lots of free downloadable software for data recovery

    Sometimes people confuse computers with other types of electronic devices. For most devices, you will only need to learn to take the dust off of them every now and then and they will work for a long time. With those types of devices, they are built to be a closed system. They were never meant to be configured by anyone besides the company that shipped the product to the store in the first place. A computer is not like that. With a computer, the system is made to be configurable so that you can do whatever you like to it. You can install whatever software that you want and you can put in whatever hardware that you want also. With a system being able to change so much, you are going to need to do some maintenance to make sure that it always runs smooth. Part of this maintenance is to make sure that your Windows 7 registry is cleaned up on a regular basis. 

    The Registry has been a part of Windows for a long time. Originally to set the configuration information for you computer, people would use .ini files and other hacks. This worked at the time but as programs got larger and more of them starting to show up, problems began to emerge. You would have naming conflicts and other sorts of problem with this type of system. So later on, Microsoft decided to make a database system that would store all of the information that the computer needed to set up. This system was called the Windows Registry. Surprisingly, with so many complaints about it, it is still in use today.

    Now whenever you install or uninstall a program on the computer, this affects the registry. The same thing goes for hardware as well. So you must make sure that the registry stays up to date with all of these changes. There are plenty of third party software developers that will help you with this. There are many different types, so you will have to choose which one is best for you. Even though there are some free ones that are good, most of the quality products, tend to be pay applications. Test them out for yourself and see how you like them. Make sure that you pay attention to the reviews that the application receives. If there are too many negative reviews, do not trust the software on your computer. 

    You also want to make sure that you back up your registry before you run one of these software programs. If the software turns out to be made incorrectly, then you can really mess up the settings on your computer. It is real easy to back up your registry. First you go to start, type in regedit, hit file on the box that pops up, and then hit export. Now you have a copy of your registry on your computer just in case anything goes wrong. 

    Cleaning up your registry can work wonders when you are trying to get your computer to run at top speed. All you have to do is to make a backup and you should be good to go. 

So we’ve seen the old year out and are busy welcoming the new year in; it’s time to take stock, to draw up the lists of who topped what charts for last year. If you are a fan of Nintendo Wii games, here’s a chart you might appreciate. Wii Play is a blockbuster by any standard, having sold in excess of two million pieces this year. It couldn’t be as great as it was the previous year, which was about 50% northward of that figure, but it still is showing remarkably lasting appeal. Its popularity is helped along some would say, probably by the free inclusion of an extra Wii controller. The Wii Sports Resort title , like the first Wii Sports, does best with tightly-packed tiny games; with the Motion Plus peripheral attachments, of course, the game had to sell in excess of 2 million.

The Wii Fit is a reason why parents around the world make an exception for this game console, over others like the PS3. The Wii Fit has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide in the two years it has been around. The concept is pretty impressive in its ability to get people actually exercising. How much fun it is to exercise in front of your screen, and watch the character within do exactly as you do, and often instruct you on the your technique? This certainly is one of the best concepts of all Nintendo Wii games around; for an idea that was widely ridiculed when it first came out, they certainly are doing well.

The old Nintendo mainstay, Mario Brothers has made it over to the Wii too, of course – this time, with multi-player functionality. There are more than one million copies sold of this avatar of Mario; it surpassed all other Wii games to become the best-seller among all other Nintendo Wii games within two weeks of its release. For a game character that is 24 years old, this is quite impressive. The Mario Kart title on the Wii hasn’t let the Mario franchise down. It’s actually sold more than 2 million copies, and it sells for just as much today in retail as it did when it was first released nearly 2 years ago. Now that is saying something.

The Rock Band series for the Wii hits just the right note for the holidays. It has different genres for different tastes; the Lego Rock Band title is for little children, with visuals inspired by the building block classic, the Beatles Rock Band title is for admirers of the Fab four, and focuses exclusively on their hits, and the standard Rock Band 2 is for all headbanging enthusiasts. There is so much that can be done with a game console that allows for natural movement. The Wii is now the top-selling console in the world, ahead of the Xbox or the PS 3, and certainly is Nintendo’s best-selling idea. The versatility of the console and the wide variety of people it appeals to has to be one of the main reasons for it’s success. And these Nintendo Wii games have carried the torch for the motion sensing console so far; next year can only be better.

Blue Coat K9 Web Protection is a free web content filtering tool. The software has a surprisingly wide array of options that can be set to filter not only websites but also specific keywords and usage times. Parents and computer administrators should find this software to be an excellent alternative to other Internet filters such as Net Nanny.

Blue Coat has a team of administrators who manually categories every website that is in the filtering database. This database is hosted on Blue Coat’s servers from where client computers access it. In the event that a request to access an unrated website is made, the software will allow access by default. As a workaround, K9 can be set to automatically block unrated sites or the dynamic rating feature can be turned on. The dynamic rating feature tries to filter content using a software approach until a Blue Coat administrator can manually rate the site.

After installation, K9 is set, by default, to block rebel sites that carry p0rn, nudity, drugs and other offensive materials; the software’s administrator can then set his/her preference. Blue Coat K9 users also have the option of submitting new websites that aren’t currently rated and ask for websites, which have previously been rated, to be reviewed.

K9 does a pretty good job of integrating the “safe search” feature that many search engines, such as Google, have. The K9 “force Safe Search” feature works well to keep web search queries clean, by blocking search results that have keywords that K9 was preset to block. Since, most search engines allows the user to easily turn off safe search, K9 gives users an added level of protection by allowing the K9 administrator to force the use of the ‘safe search’ feature at all times; there is also a setting that can be used to block the use of search engines that don’t have a Blue Coat supported ‘safe search’ feature.

With K9 running on a computer, users will notice that not all the content from some websites will be displayed, even if K9 was set the allow the content. This happens if the website in question has content from another site that is blocked by a K9 setting. For example, if K9 was set to block video sharing sites, the user will not be able to see embedded videos from Youtube, even if viewing of the current site is allowed by the administrator.

This content filter can also serve as a web usage-monitoring tool. By turning off the website blocking settings the administrator can simply have K9 keep a log of the Internet activities on the computer being monitored. The activity monitor can then be used to display a detailed report on web categories that are being visited and the frequency with which the computer’s user are accessing those sites. The software can also be used to set time restrictions and disable all Internet services, if users make too many attempts to access restrict websites or categories. This is a powerful feature that can be used to thwart attempts to circumvent the monitoring software or to force users to consider the slippery slope they are embarking.

K9 Blue Coat Web Protection web content filter has a tidy set of features to manage, monitor and filter web content that is being view on a computer. Not only can the software be set to filter websites in general but also to filter specific keywords and also set restrictions on computer usage times. It is indeed a powerful tool that is sure to meet, and in some cases exceed the needs of a parent or computer administrator who is looking for a free content filter or parental control software.

Battlefield 2142 is an interesting take on the relatively simplistic nature of FPS games. DICE and EA have created a game that aims to blend the successful and fun elements of the previous Battlefield franchise games (Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2) with the careful strategic planning required in any RTS game. While at the most basic level 2142 is simply an advanced Battlefield 2 remake, it can also be seen as a successful attempt to bring a new importance to team play and game play planning. The background story of the 2142 world is that Earth has plunged into another Ice Age and two powerful forces; the Pan-Asian Coalition and the European Union must battle it out to decide who claims the last remaining parts of the Earth not covered in ice.

Multiplayer is the core of 2142, as it has been in other games of the franchise. Bots in single player mode only allow limited excitement as you play against them in the classic Battlefield Conquest mode (where you must capture strategic points on the map in order to reduce your enemy’s score to 0). Titan mode is available for multiplayer only, but the game play mechanics are vastly different to the staple defensive and offensive play in Conquest. While in Conquest mode the only way to reduce your opponent’s score is to capture strategic outposts and kill enemies, in Titan, your objective is to destroy the enemy’s Titan (a large flying fortress).

Missile silos replace strategic outposts on Titan maps and must be captured in order to destroy the enemy Titan’s shield. Once it is down, missiles continue to pound the enemy Titan hull until it is destroyed, or the silo is neutralized. A quicker victory can be achieved by storming the Titan with troops and blowing up the reactor at its core. This is obviously a far more difficult option as the Titan is well defended both internally and externally: huge cannons on the bottom of the Titan which can be controlled by players pound the ground below, anti-aircraft guns mounted on the Titan roof guard the skies, and players guard the halls of the Titan from the inside.

Weapons and vehicles obviously play an integral role in 2142 game play. The standard Battlefield 2 vehicle conversions exist, such as a small, 3-man jeep, APCs, tanks, and aircraft (a gunship and a transport). The only problem with some of these vehicles is that each has its own learning curve – aircraft are naturally harder to fly than a tank is to drive, and each vehicle has a different number of men it can carry and guns to mount. You can also hop into one of the many field emplacements on the map such as anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns. The maps are huge in typical Battlefield style with bunkers and hiding places everywhere for the skilled sniper or support gunner to utilize.

The weapons in 2142 are varied and each is suited to a particular play style. You can choose fro the Engineer kit (anti-vehicle guns, mines, explosives), Assault kit (assault rifles, grenades, medic kits), Support kit (machine guns, shields, ammo kits) or Recon kit (sniper rifles, sabotage devices, infiltration devices). Generally speaking, you cannot be jack-of-all trades because each weapon is unlocked progressively. You earn experience points with which you unlock the next item in a specific kit, and then begin to amass experience for the next unlock. This encourages more strategic play (specifically, more take-and-hold oriented play rather than mad, free-for-all rushes at important locations) but can be daunting for the newbie who gets gunned down by an experienced player with a much more powerful gun. However, you can pick up enemy kits that are dropped when a player dies, so you can try an item out before you actually use your own unlocks on it.

Players can choose to be squad leaders and command players in group of up to six soldiers, giving them orders to defend, attack, and basic directional commands. For those looking for a little more responsibility, you can take command of the squads on the team in the position of Commander. Commanders can play the game in an RTS-style overhead map where they can choose to drop supplies, deploy EMP and orbital strikes, and order squads around. Not for the faint of heart, a poor commander can lead a team to a quick demise while a skilled one can counter enemy movements effectively and make victory come swiftly.
The graphics and sounds are superb, but Battlefield 2 fans might be a little disappointed that there hasn’t been a complete graphics overhaul.

Graphics are similar to those of Battlefield 2 but a lot of improvements have been made here and there. The vehicles in particular look great, but are lacking damage modeling which could make blowing up a tank with an anti-tank rocket much more satisfying. Sounds are well done, and weapon sounds in particular contribute a lot to the game’s atmosphere. Support guns emit a low, rumbling sound as they fire and pistols make a short, high pitched sound as they shoot. The voice commands you can issue (Yes, No, I need ammo, etc.) may lack a little variety but these play only a small part in the overall 2142 experience.

Overall, 2142 is a solid progression from the Battlefield 2 modern combat setting to a new, futuristic, exciting battleground filled with all manner of vehicles to throttle and weapons to experiment with. A must buy for Battlefield fans and a good investment for those looking for a more strategic-oriented FPS game.

Ever wanted to connect your DSi to the Internet? Well, after following the steps listed in this tutorial, you should be well on your way! First, you must check to make sure that your own or have access to the following devices:

> A Nintendo DSi
> A Wireless router
> An Internet connection (Broadband is recommended, but a Dial-up connection will also work)

By connecting your game system to the Internet, you’ll open up a whole new world for yourself. You’ll be able to play Wi-Fi enabled games against other players around the world, search the web, perform system updates, and much more.

Setting up the system is actually quite easy, and only requires a few technical steps. This tutorial will be broken up into two sections, which covers setting up your DSi using the main menu or by using a Wi-Fi enabled game. Which ever method you choose will produce the same end result.

Note: A lot of restaurants, hotels, and stores are now providing free Wi-Fi access, so if you are any of these places and can find a connection, go for it!

Connecting your DSi (Regular method)

1. Power on your Nintendo DSi.
2. After the Health and Safety screen, you’ll be greeted by the DSi menu.
3. Find and select the “System Setings” icon. If you haven’t adjusted the order, it should be at the extreme left.
4. From here, press the over arrow 3 times (or tap the “3″) to navigate to the 3rd menu. Click on the “Internet” option.
5. Now, simply choose “Connection Settings”.
6. Select any connection that you would like to use (1-3). If it says “None”, then you can set up a new connection by tapping that option.
7. Select “Search for an Access Point”.
8. If there are any Wi-Fi connections within range, it will find the connection. Select the appropriate connection (most likely your router’s name) to connect. If your router uses a WEP key, then the DSi will prompt you to enter it.
9. It will then test the connection, checking for internet availability.
10. If everything goes right, then your connection will be confirmed and then you’ll be able to connect to the Internet from your DSi. Congratulations!

Connecting your DSi (Wi-Fi game method)
1. Power on your Nintendo DSi.
2. After the Health and Safety screen, you’ll be greeted by the DSi menu.
3. Insert a Wi-Fi enabled game. Examples include Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Tetris DS, …
4. Within the games main menu, go into the game settings and then select “Nintendo WFC Setup”
5. This menu will allow you to set up your Wifi settings similar to the regular method.
6. Follow steps 6-10 from the Regular method listed above in order to connect your DSi.

If your work requires that you use an FTP client daily or you’re just learning web programming/design and have a hosting account to which you upload your files, you need to optimize and maximize the speed of your transfers.
A friend of mine who is learning PHP and HTML/CSS complained that it takes half an hour to upload his Joomla installation to his web server and when I asked him how big is the whole folder he said 25MB. I was quite surprised, as I have the same Internet package as him (8Mbps download and 1Mbps upload) and it takes me at most 10 minutes (I never actually counted) to upload a full Drupal or Joomla installation, complete with themes and plugins.

I took a look at his computer and software and immediately found the culprit: the FTP client itself, Filezilla, which was running with default settings (I’ll explain below why this is bad).
I asked him why didn’t he customize the settings for his connection and he said, “Hey, I don’t really like to mess around with settings. If it works, it’s cool. I don’t need to mess something up and then not be able to connect to my site.”
I guess many people think so, but he was learning web development, and I thought he might want to see how everything works and customize it. Well, we’re all different, I thought, and explained him what he needs to do. After I came home, I wondered how many people have the same problem, and I found that there’s quite a few of them asking this question on forums.

This article is meant to explain to everyone how to increase their FTP client’s speed, using one simple setting, which is overlooked and left to default most of the times. But first, you might want to get the fastest FTP client, which, after testing dozens of them, I found to be Bitkinex, a free client.

Why is it faster?
The answer is simple: concurrent connections limit. Most of the available clients (even popular ones like Filezilla, Cuteftp, SmartFTP and FireFTP) are limited to 10 simultaneous connections (and the default setting is even lower, at 1-3 connections maximum).
What this means is that when you upload a folder with lots of files (which is almost always the case), the program will upload only 10 at a time, even if you’ve got plenty of bandwidth and speed left (imagine having a 10Mbit/s upload speed and uploading at only 512kbit/s; I know I’d feel disappointed .
When you upload only one file, it will upload at full speed, but when you try uploading 10,000 (like in the case of a website, web software or Content Management System), you will be limited to 10 concurrent transfers using at most a third of your internet connection speed. This happens because of the software itself, which is slow to queue the files and keep track of each file’s status (when it was put in queue, when the upload was completed, what files are next, etc.). Why there are no programs capable of using 100 and more simultaneous connections is beyond my understanding . The fastest I’ve seen is 50, and that record belongs to Bitkinex.

But if you like your current FTP client, you can continue using it, and you can make it faster by setting the simultaneous/concurrent connections setting to the maximum (which is usually 10 for most clients, and 50 for Bitkinex).
Here’s how to do it in various FTP clients.

First, Filezilla:
Go to Edit->Settings->Transfers, set “Maximum Simultaneous Transfers” to 10 and click OK

Second, Fireftp (FTP client add-on to Mozilla Firefox, you’ve got to check it out if you haven’t yet):
Click on Tools (top right corner), Options->Connections, set the “Max. Simultaneous Transfers” to 10 and click OK.
Last, and the most important, Bitkinex (seriously, give it a try, it is free, I guarantee you won’t go back to any other client unless your OS doesn’t work correctly with it):

In Bitkinex, you can set the setting at a global level or at individual connection level. I use the global setting, because the number of concurrent connections is 50 per server regardless of the number of FTP servers you’re connected to.
First, click on “FTP” in the main window (where the saved connections are), then click on “Data Source” in the toolbar, click on Properties->Connections and set the “total number of connections used by this data source” to 50, then click OK.

As a conclusion, I ran a test to demonstrate the impact that this setting has on speed:
I downloaded Joomla 1.5.14, unpacked it and uploaded to a server via SSH (which is usually slower than FTP, but the better security is worth it). The whole folder had 4150 files and weighted 13.8MB. Internet connection upload speed was 1 Mbit/s.
Tests were performed with Bitkinex and the results were the following:
Upload to server using 50 concurrent connections took 3 minutes 38 seconds, and using 10 concurrent connections it took 12 minutes 59 seconds.
Deleting the folder from the server took 59 seconds using 50 simultaneous connections and 4 minutes 21 seconds using 10 simultaneous connections.

Quite a difference, don’t you think?
So, if you want the same results, go change the concurrent connections limit right now.

FTP clients are indispensable tools nowadays, especially for web developers. We use them to transfer all kinds of files, including documents, scripts, web pages between our home and office computers and data center servers. The first clients were CLI (Command Line Interface) based, which made them unsuitable for 90% of the people, who were unable or unwilling to learn all the commands that were needed to operate them (which were like a language in their own right, and how many of you want or have the time to learn a new language?).

Then the GUI (Graphical User Interface) versions were developed, which helped ftp clients get to the number 1 spot in the file transfer category, and they are still there today, even though more advanced web interfaces & protocols are slowly taking over.
The drawback of most of those clients was that they were not free. You had to pay a per-user license fee, which could sometimes mean tens of thousands of dollars spent for small businesses (the enterprise sector was already spending millions getting licenses or developing their own tools).

Everything changed when open-source software (which is basically free software, like Linux, of which most of you heard) became more widespread, big companies started supporting the movement and its quality & functionality started being on par or even higher than paid solutions. Suddenly everyone had access to a big list of FTP client software, and a lot of developers started working on their own projects.

There are now hundreds of working FTP clients available, most of them abandoned, but the best ones are still free and being constantly developed. A lot of former paid software is now becoming free, too, which means users have free access to tools which used to cost $30 and more per license.

Now that you know a little bit of the history behind FTP clients, it’s time to see which ones are the absolute best. After testing more than 20 popular clients, I selected Filezilla, Fireftp and Bitkinex as the best based on functionality, usability, stability, performance and price (or to be more precise, the lack of it). All three of them are free, so it costs you nothing to try them out.
Most of the old clients were single-threaded or supported a limited number of concurrent connections (and as all the clients today are based on old code, this major drawback still exists). Cuteftp, Easyftp and even Filezilla & Fireftp support a maximum of 10 concurrent connections.

How does this affect you, the user?

In a most direct way, I’m afraid: the number of concurrent connections stands for the number of files that can be transferred at the same time, and as most web masters know, a web site or web-based software can contain thousands and tens of thousands of files, which take a loooong time to upload, regardless of your Internet connection speed (imagine having a 50Mbit/s connection and waiting half an hour for your site to upload .

Bitkinex is the only client I’ve seen that is free and supports up to 50 concurrent connections (though it used to cost $30 before 2009 and is not open source… yet).
Anyway, let’s get to the reviews:

First one up is Filezilla, which is the most popular cross-platform (runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS), open-source FTP client. Everyone recommends it (and it is a good client), but it doesn’t differ much from other solutions (the only big difference is that it is open-source, which is very important, as all the bugs and security holes are found and removed fast, so it’s essentially trouble-free).

Unlike many other clients, it supports FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS; essentially a simple FTP connection running through an encrypted channel) and SSH/SFTP (which is a totally different protocol that is used as a more secure method of connection; Filezilla uses the SFTP component from Putty, an utility which allows one to connect directly to a server and run any commands remotely).
It supports FXP transfers (direct transfers between 2 different FTP servers; without this, the file is first transferred to your computer, then to the other server, which limits the maximum speed to your internet connection speed), but it doesn’t support drag-n-drop from multiple instances of the program (useful when you want to easily copy a file from one ftp server to another), so it’s a little hard to copy or move files.
It has a nice feature called “Quickconnect” which stores all your previous connections information, so you don’t have to type the address, username and password every time you start the program. It is also sort of theme-able: you can change the icons used (not really a useful feature in a FTP client).

That’s about it for Filezilla, next up is Fireftp, which has become very popular in a short amount of time, and is quite a special case: it is an add-on for Mozilla Firefox (arguably the best browser available) which means it runs inside Firefox as a tab or new window.

I was quite impressed with it: it takes very little space, it seamlessly integrates with other web tasks (like administrating a website or a script) and it works without a glitch.
Functionality wise it’s is very similar to Filezilla, meaning it supports FTPS, SSH, 10 concurrent connections, multiple open connections, drag-n-drop, etc. It also has the Quickconnect feature and uses Putty’s SFTP implementation (which led me to believe it was created using Filezilla as a base).

Nothing else to say except that FireFTP is the best choice if you want a lightweight yet powerful FTP client.

Moving on, I’d like to present Bitkinex, the absolute best (in my opinion) free FTP/SSH client on the market. I’ve used it since 2007 and still haven’t found anything more powerful. Moreover, since the beginning of 2009, it is absolutely free (though I hope this doesn’t slow down or stop its development; I’d much rather pay $30 to use it and know for sure that they’ll make better versions in the future).

It is very similar to Filezilla and Fireftp, meaning it includes support for FTPS, SSH, Proxy and all other features that the other 2 have. In addition, it has support for http/https and WebDAV connections. What makes it really special is the excellent FXP support (direct server to server transfer), drag-n-drop functionality (you can do it between Windows Explorer and Bitkinex AND between 2 different FTP connections, which is very useful), the support for 50 simultaneous connections and a unique caching system which makes navigating directories much faster. It is very fast, using all of my available bandwidth (8Mbit/s download and 1Mb/s upload) at all times (even when uploading 20,000 files).

The interface is a little different from others, too. It has a main window with all your saved connections, and separate minimalistic windows for all your open server connections (kind of like Skype, MSN and other messengers). This is a very effective layout, as you can easily access all your sites and switch between them.

As a pleasant add-on, the resume/pause/restart functionality is very well implemented. You can close Bitkinex and shutdown your computer, and when you start the program again, it’ll ask what you want to do: resume, restart or cancel your transfers.
This is all I have to say about these 3 FTP clients individually. If I had to recommend any one of them for a particular purpose, I would say this: Bitkinex is the absolute champion in speed and usability, Fireftp is very lightweight, easy to install and use and gives you the least headache of all, and Filezilla is just a good all-around FTP client, with the advantage that it is open-source and is constantly developed.

But to really make a choice, you’ve got to try them out (they’re free, after all) and see which one you like the most.