How to use Total Commander to transfer files to your server

Total Commander is an Orthodox File Manager, an application written by Christian Ghisler in Delphi (32-bit version) and Delphi 1 (16-bit version). The program has the ability to bind external programs for viewing or editing files. Many plugins are freely available for e.g. different packer formats or file viewer for special file formats. As well, a large variety of internal functions (commands) are available and ready to work. If you are interested in details, you can check Wikipedia.

In this hub we will see how you can use it to transfer files from/to your server, delete files, rename files and so on. You can also use TC to modify file permissions.

I will assume you already have TC downloaded and installed and you have an online hosting account (server). As in the picture above, TC has two panels and a command line box. To connect to a server, you must go like this:

in the left side click on Net->FTP Connect->New connection. Enter your data to connect to the server: Session requires a name for you to remember the server, if you have many connections to many servers. Host name (Port) is usually ftp.your-domain-name. Username and password need no explanations. It is not necessary, but I recommend checking the Send command to keep the connection alive box, entering the command NOOP and entering 60 as the interval for the command to be sent. If everything is OK, when you click Connect you will be connected to your server.

Now, the left side of TC will show files on your server and the right side will show files on your hard disk. You can easily copy files from/to your server. You can also delete files from your server.

Sometimes you'll need to change files permissions to make things work. TC provides an easy way to do so. Here is how: click on the left panel of TC and connect to your server. When connection is done, in the left panel you will see files on your server. Let's say you need the file members.php to have permission 755. In the TC command box write chmod 755 members.php and hit enter. You'll see something like this:

Specialized FTP software gives you many other functions, but I really like to use TC because it is very fast, reliable and easy to work with.