WinSCP program for Mac

WinSCP is a great program for Windows that will give you a GUI interface to manage files on a remote server when all you can use to connect is SSH. Having grown fond of this program a colleague was sad to find there was no version for MAC. After playing with several different options, they ended up settling on using the FireFTP extension for Firefox and connecting via SFTP to the remote server. To setup FireFTP to use SFTP on the MAC you need to do a few things first.

1. Install the Xcode 3.0 Developer Tools found on your Apple’s Install Disc in the “Optional Installs” folder (Optional Installs->Xcode Tools->XcodeTools.mpkg) or at https://connect.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MemberSite.woa/wa/getSoftware?bundleID=19897 (beware: it’s a 1 GB download)
2. Then you need to install MacPorts: https://www.macports.org/install.php
3. Open up a Terminal (Applications->Utilities->Terminal)
4. At the prompt type: sudo port install putty (this may take some time)
5. (you may be asked for a password)
6. Connect with FireFTP

Just provide you SSH credentials and setup the SFTP connection and once you connect you will be in your home directory. You are now connected to your server with a secure FTP connection and can manage files with a gui instead of the command line, all from your browser none the less. Why FireFTP requires Putty on the MAC is beyond me since it has openssh and sftp built in. Oh well, it would be nice is SFTP work from the finder when it works from the command prompt…

UPDATE: Even better now, you can use a program called Filezilla that will easily allow you to do the exact same thing as winscp.