Contrary to the belief that a fling is a short relationship, computer nerds can attest that Fling is actually a free FTP client available to anyone with a Windows machine. The Fling FTP client is a freeware product that has recently announced support for Vista- and the features just keep rolling as new feature sets come out periodically.

Interestingly, Fling isn't going to use a standalone program to to most of the FTP work on a network. In fact, Fling FTP is built into Windows Explorer so that the process of transferring a file or folder is as easy as possible. Indeed, it is as simple as selecting a file with the right mouse click and sending it to its destination- it couldn't be more simple!

Fling takes security topics into mind quite carefully. Those who have been around since the dawn of the Internet will remember that FTP clients used to use passwords that were unencrypted- and anyone over a network could simply steal the password with ease. Fling remedies this by using SSL- a secure connection that encrypts such confidential credentials.

Transferring files over a local area network isn't something that the average FTP user is going to do. But when someone does indeed need to transfer files over a long term basis, or just wants an easier means of doing so, Fling can be used to ensure that the process is as painless as possible.

Support for the Fling client goes all the way back to WIndows 98, and is even supported on the latest version of Windows- Windows Vista. It seems they skipped out the frowned-upon version called Windows ME, but since most people quickly learned this operating system was worthy of an upgrade, it's likely this won't be a problem.

Since the Fling FTP client is going to be for Windows based systems, Windows users can obtain the free software under both ZIP and EXE extensions. If the user doesn't have a ZIP archival tool, they can use the one built into most versions of Windows. Otherwise, they can opt for the straight EXE file- although this will be a larger download as it isn't going to be compressed via ZIP.

Final Thoughts

It's hard to pass up a free offer, and as most can see, Fling is something that most would even pay for. But thankfully there is indeed a movement being made in the freeware community, and anyone with an Internet connection can get this gem absolutely free. And as we have seen, it doesn't look like support for the application is going away anytime soon!