YEP! So I found no way around this hassle with Classic FTP.
I took my Host's advice and installed Filezilla, which in my opinion is not as good as Classic FTP was on my old machine but YEP
WRX !!
So in a month's time I will perhaps look at it. Looks like I did my dough though.
All this just for a convenient way to upgrade Wordpress (my way) and upload 'stuff' to the blogs, aside from using the Site Admin transfer.
We have a lot of fun wasting time and money here, huh?