The free version of WS_FTP, which is WS_FTP was already phased out a couple of months ago..What was known as WS_FTP LE is now WS_FTP Home 9.0 which costs $34.95 to buy.
For a free FTP client..I would recommend FILEZILLA too as mentioned on previous posts.
creating you own brushes is very simple....the simpliest tutorial I personally know for this is the one in http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ just find tutorials on the menu. you could also download the tutorial in pdf file here. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
im new in here...
I have observed many photoshop users are much into filters and presets nowadays. I prefer brushes than filters. Brushes usually rely on users hand..and images created by brushes are not that easy to imitate.
heres my personal work...its not good I know. I made it with some grunge brushes...I just added a fading image on it using imageready to make it "not so boring" (since its a monotone)