Use a web FTP client to access files from an iPhone

I keep a number of reference documents on a server at work that would be very handy to have access to on my iPhone while at work. The server is Windows 2003, and the iPhone does not provide an easy way to access shared files by ftp or smb. I was thinking about using something like AirSharing, but the files are changing and edited by more than one person, making sync a bit of an issue.

I thought about enabling IIS directory browsing, but this proved too limiting. Eventually, I came across a (free) project called net2FTP, which is a web-based FTP client. Using net2ftp requires that you can host FTP on your file server, and a webserver with PHP (either on the same server, or somewhere else). I installed Filezilla and net2FTP on the server, set up the FTP server to share out the directories I needed, and made some adjustments to net2FTP. net2ftp even includes a "mobile" skin (which you can set as the default) to work better with the iPhone.

Now the directories are password protected, and I can browse them from the iPhone, loading PDFs, excel, or whatever else the iPhone can read. I locked net2ftp so it would only access the local server, and only accept connections from our internal network (since I'm using the iphone over wifi in the office) to make it more secure.

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Use a web FTP client to access files from an iPhone
Authored by: merlyn on Mon, Nov 24 2008 at 9:30AM PST

You can also use the Discover app to provide a web-browser based file access for your phone.

Use a web FTP client to access files from an iPhone
Authored by: ZeroFlop on Mon, Nov 24 2008 at 11:53AM PST

Apps like this, you can move files to the phone, but in his case the files are on the server and need to be updated by others. Another thought I had was to have a script that looked for your phone and synced the files on the phone when detected. It would only see the phone when the AirShare app etc is open and therefore would only sync with the most recent files.

So just before you go out the door, open the app. wait long enought for the script to run and walk out the door.

Use a web FTP client to access files from an iPhone
Authored by: zebrum on Mon, Nov 24 2008 at 10:15AM PST

Just be careful using FTP when mobile, especially over WiFi when anyone on the network can see the FTP username and password even if it is a secure WiFi network.

I have Mobile Me and have some files on the iDisk and am using an app called MobileFiles which is pretty good for accessing them from the iPhone. Dropping some map images or reservation PDFs into your synced idisk folder on your mac is a bit easier than emailing them to yourself.

Use a web FTP client to access files from an iPhone
Authored by: spinkb on Tue, Nov 25 2008 at 8:23PM PST

(SEE DISCLAIMER AT BOTTOM)
There are other option to do this too. CrushFTP is server software providing FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, and SFTP server functions. CrushFTP can run directly on any machine, and serve out the files. You can use HTTPS from the iPhone to access the CrushFTP server you run. No need to configure a FTP server, and another app to provide HTTP access to that FTP server as this hint detailed.

The WebInterface of CrushFTP works well with the iPhone too.

However, if you wanted to go that route, there are a lot of options you can do via Crush. You can share out other FTP server's directories to the CrushFTP server's WebInterface. So a remote FTP site looks just like a local folder when you are browsing the WebInterface.

You can apply the same principal for SFTP servers...have Crush provide a HTTPS WebInterface front end to the SFTP server.

There are even more complex and powerful things you can do as well...such as configuring a user definable proxy mechanism for CrushFTP. This means you login to Crush, then enter the FTP site's info, (ip,user,pass), then click next and crush dynamically builds a WebInterface to that remote FTP site on the fly for you. You can even have presets created too...so its good for an organization with many people doing this.

CrushFTP is highly customizable, and does things no other server can do. These are just some examples of how it could do what this tip was about...but do it in about 3 minutes of setup time. If you want more info, email me.

Disclaimer: I am the author of CrushFTP, and stand to make money in the event you purchase it. ben@crushftp.com

Use a web FTP client to access files from an iPhone
Authored by: browning_11 on Mon, Feb 2 2009 at 1:53PM PST

Serv-U file server has a iPhone client for exaclty what you need. http://www.Serv-U.com

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