* FileZilla not recommended by some

[AndyMick]

I'm a recent covert to FH. Thanks to Valkrider I now have FH6 running under WINE in Linux. I was browsing FH Help and came across the reference to FileZilla for FTP. Below is a comment from the GOONS website project. Hope this helps someone.

John Cardinal is a professional web developer in the genealogy field. He has written:

In the past, I recommended the FTP client FileZilla. Unfortunately, I learned recently that the most common install programs for recent versions of FileZilla include several unwanted software programs that are unrelated to the purpose of FileZilla. In short, the installer deliberately includes viruses.

One of the programs is Binkiland, a browser hijacker that corrupts your browser home page and search engine. The other is PC Optimizer Pro, a registry cleaner program that falsely claims that several issues have been detected on your computer and tries to sell you its full version to correct the (non-existent) problems.

If you are currently using FileZilla, do not upgrade to the latest version. If you are not using FileZilla, do not install it. Find some other FTP program. I routinely use FireFTP, a browser add-on for Firefox that provides FTP capability in a browser window...

You should also avoid downloading anything from SourceForge. SourceForge was once a trusted location for installer programs, but now they are including the two programs mentioned above in their installers and there is often no way to disable the unwanted programs. The installer dialog windows have been deliberately designed to fool users into installing the unwanted software and in some cases, even if you see through the ruse, the viruses are installed anyway.

[TimTreeby]

Wish they would check things out properly first, as yes there is a download which includes unwanted software, but there is also a download which doesn't include the software.

See https://sourceforge.net/projects/filezi ... nt/3.16.0/ for all download options

This also happens with a lot of other software as well, which is free you just need to make sure you find the correct download. As the installation for just the software you want is not always easily spotted.

[mjashby]

The John Cardinal quote is somewhat out-of-date and the 'revelation' was nothing at all to do with the Filezilla developers and everything to do with SourceForge which did, for a period of time add in some 'optional' software into some of their downloads in an attempt to raise funds to support the service. My understanding, from a variety of sources, is that this practice was terminated very quickly by SourceForge following mass complaints from their public and some of the most prominent OpenSource developers, who either threatened to (or actually did) move their products to other download services in response to the practice.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Neither the FH Help page nor the how_to:get_my_pages_on_the_web|> Upload Web Pages (How To) page link to the SourceForge download, but instead to the FileZilla home page https://filezilla-project.org/ which I believe is safe.

[AndyMick]

Thanks for the clarification. You folks have an impressive knowledge.