ExpanDrive will expand your SFTP horizons

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March 4, 2008

ExpanDrive will expand your SFTP horizons

Posted Mar. 4, ’08, 8:06 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

ExpanDrive Integrated network support in OS X has always been a dicey proposition. While the Finder can handle FTP, it doesn’t do so with particular aplomb. Most frustratingly, while you can copy files from an FTP share mounted in the Finder, you cannot write to that share: it’s a one-way street.

Magnetk’s ExpanDrive aims to obviate this problem by letting you mount secure FTP shares as local drives, accessible from any application, and fully readable and writable. How very futuristic. ExpandDrive is in part reliant on MacFUSE, which we’ve discussed a few times before.

The program does have its share of shortcomings; it doesn’t, from what I can tell, support non-secured FTP and its interface has some quirks (which John Gruber has thoroughly cataloged)—here’s another I discovered. And, of course, despite the fact that your mounted shares look like local drives, you’ll notice some performance slow downs. Still, it’s way faster than OS X’s own built-in “support.” (I also find it somewhat bothersome that the app’s icon is so similar to Panic’s Unison, but what’re you going to do?).

I’m not rooting for the myriad OS X FTP clients to be put out of business by any means, but it would be nice if OS X had built-in modern support for dealing with servers. ExpanDrive still needs some work, but it’s a promising prospect if you constantly need to deal with SFTP connections. The app’ll run you $29, but there’s a 30 day free trial, so feel free to try before you buy.

[via Daring Fireball]

7 Comments

Jeremy King said:

Why not use an established product that handles all those protocols and more.

http://nolobe.com/interarchy/

March 4, 2008 9:10 AM

Jeff said:

Interarchy doesn't operate as a volume - ExpanDrive lets you access the connection from within any application on your mac, not just from within ExpanDrive

March 4, 2008 10:06 AM

jackfrost said:

That sure looks a lot like Panic's Unison magnet...

March 4, 2008 12:08 PM

Link33 said:

Any word on resource forks? I believe this is one reason Apple hasn't allowed for write ability to ftp servers. Most modern files don't have resource forks but there are still some out there. Wouldn't want to have to field all those "My file is damaged!" calls myself. But it would be cool for a third party app to warn about files with resource forks attached.

March 4, 2008 12:54 PM

Dave-O said:

As far as I'm concerned, the lack of support for non-secure FTP is a feature. It's not 1970 anymore, folks. No protocol that involves clear-text passwords is acceptable.

@Jeremy, if you read Gruber's post, I don't think you'd be asking that question.

March 4, 2008 1:40 PM

Khürt Williams

said: