Anyone have any info on a tool to schedule a ftp task that includes email notification of missed tasks? I have been using the free Microsoft scheduled tasks of a bat file that executes a command line ftp but need an email notification. This task runs on a windows 2003 server. thanks

If you are running SQL Server, you can reasonably easily build a DTS package that will do almost miraculous things. Scheduling an FTP and emailing on either success, failure, or both is simple.

If you don't have SQL Server, you can use Perl to create a script that will do an FTP and can even send an email. Since this is a full blown scripting language, you can do whatever you are willing to write a script to do, but that takes a bit more time than a similar DTS task.

If you have any application (such as MS-Access), you can build scripts to handle FTP and email, but this is a bit more complex than the Perl option (at least in my opinion).

Of course, there is always "brute force", where you can write a small application using c# or VB to create an executable. This is the most work of all my suggestions, but also the most powerful choice.

As I'm fond of saying, there are more ways to skin a cat than there are cats, but that is no reason to stop trying! You just have to find the solution that works for you.

-PatP