FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.
Windows 64 Bits Windows 32 Bits Windows Servers MacOS
FileZilla ® Client is often refered as FileZilla, and is the Client software everyone can use on his own machine.
FileZilla ® was started as a computer science class project in the second week of January 2001 by Tim Kosse and two classmates.
Before they started to write the code, they discussed on which licence they should release the code.
They decided to make FileZilla ® an open-source project, because there were already many FTP clients available and they didn’t think that they would sell even one copy if they made FileZilla ® commercial.
Now FileZilla ® is known as one of the most reliable and updated FTP client, CNET.com quoting it 5 stars, with this elogious comment:
“FileZilla ® is no monster, either, eating up a manageable 50 MB in memory. Clearly, this is one of the best FTP tools around”.
FileZilla is powerful Open Source FTP/SFTP client with many features.
It includes a site manager to store all your connection details and logins as well as an Explorer style interface that shows the local and remote folders and can be customized independently.
A nice program for beginners and advanced user alike.
FileZilla ® is so easy to download and launch that you might not realize how powerful it is.
Just enter a few basic server settings and you’re up and running with a single click.
To upload and download files, simply drag and drop them between your Web server and computer.
You monitor your actions in the site manager pane, which highlights the status of file uploads and downloads, or bypass the queue with manual transfer.
You can also pause or cancel file transfers and even configure transfer speed limits to reduce file transfer errors, making the process of managing your Web site easy.
FileZilla ® Features
FileZilla 3 is the next generation (S)FTP-client from the FileZilla project. It is platform independent and supports operating systems like Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, *BSD and Mac OS X. FileZilla ® Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.
Among others, the features of FileZilla ® include the following:
- Easy to use
- Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
- Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X and more
- IPv6 support
- Available in many languages
- Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
- Tabbed user interface
- Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
- Bookmarks
- Drag & drop support
- Configurable transfer speed limits
- Filename filters
- Directory comparison
- Network configuration wizard
- Remote file editing
- Keep-alive
- HTTP/1.1, SOCKS5 and FTP-Proxy support
- Logging to file
- Synchronized directory browsing
- Remote file search
FileZilla ® Server
FileZilla Server is a server that supports FTP and FTP over TLS which provides secure encrypted connections to the server.
FileZilla supports TLS, the same level of encryption supported by your web browser, to protect your data.
When using TLS your data is encrypted so that prying eyes cannot see it, and your confidential information is protected.
It also supports on-the-fly data compression, which can improve the transfer rates.
Unfortunately, the compression setting can have mixed results, so it is advised to use it with care.
It is possible for files that are already compressed to be transferred over the network using more than their original data size.
Support for SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is not implemented in Filezilla Server.
Quick Guide
based on FileZilla ® project tutorial page:
This guide gives you a short overview on how to use FileZilla.
By default you don’t have to configure FileZilla, so you can start directly working with the program.
Connecting to an FTP server using the Quick Connect bar
To connect to an FTP server, enter the address of the server into the host field of the Quickconnect bar (i.e. domain.com – see image below).
If it is a special server type like an SFTP server, add the protocol in front of the address.
In case of an SFTP server, start the address with ‘sftp://’ (i.e. sftp://domain.com). Enter the port of the server into the port field if it is not the default port (21 for FTP, 22 for SFTP). If a username / password is required, enter it in the corresponding fields, otherwise the default anonymous logon will be used.
Click on Quickconnect or press Enter to connect to the server.
Please notice that the Quick Connect is for… quick connections – so there is no way to edit the quick connections list which stores the last 10 entries.
To store FTP server names you should use the Site Manager, instead.
Quick Connect is good for testing the login info before making a site manager entry.
Once you connect, you can choose File -> “Copy current connection to Site Manager…” to make a permanent entry.
It is usually best to check your login info with Quick Connect before making a permanent entry.
Using Site Manager
You can use the FileZilla ® Site Manager to specify specific site parameters and connect to the targeted FTP site.
The Site Manager allows you to store entries and configure more parameters than the Quick Connect allows.
Special case : Servers in LAN
If the server you are connecting to is in your home LAN, then there is not an address (domain name) as you may know from the Internet.
In LAN, you simply use the internal IP address of the server PC. In most cases the network name (computer name) will do, too.
If the server is on the same PC as Filezilla, you can even use localhost or 127.0.0.1 as hostname.
If you connect from the outside of your LAN this does not apply, you have to use the external (WAN) IP instead.
Navigating on the server
After a successful connection attempt, a list of files and folders appears on the right side of the main window.
The current folder is listed in the edit field on the top. Below you will see the remote directory tree and below that, the contents of the current remote folder.
There are three ways to change the folder. First, you can double-click a folder in the file list. Second, you can change the current folder by clicking a folder in the directory tree.
Last but not least, you can always enter the folder name into the edit field and press enter.
You will notice a folder called “..” displayed in virtually all directories. This folder allows you to go up to the parent directory of the current folder.
Navigating on your machine
Navigating on your machine works almost like navigating on the server.
The current local folder and the local directory tree are displayed on the left side of the main window by default.
Synchronized Browsing
If you have an identical directory structure on the local machine and the server, you can enable synchronized browsing.
This means that any directory navigation on one machine is duplicated on the other.
To enable synchronized browsing, create an entry in the Site Manager, and on the Advanced tab, ensure that the Default local directory and the Default remote directory have the same structure.
Then check “use synchronized browsing,” save your settings, and connect.
Directory Comparison
To quickly see differences between files on the local machine and the server, choose View > Directory Comparison, and choose either “compare file size” or “compare modification time.” (You also hide identical files by checking that option.) Then choose “Enable.”
You will now see color-coded differences between copies of the same file on the different machines.
Transferring files
You can upload or download a file by double-clicking on it. It will be added to the transfer queue and the transfer starts automatically.
To transfer folders and/or multiple files, select them and right-click the selection.
Then you can click on Upload/Download in the popup menu.
You can also drag the files from one side and drop them on the other side.
To add files to the queue so that they will be transferred later, select them and click Add to Queue from the popup menu.
You may also drag the files directly into the queue. Click on the button on the toolbar to start the transfer.
Or, you can click on a file, then drag the file (a box is added to the arrow cursor) to the folder where you want to move it.
The folder will be highlighted when you are over it. Let go of the mouse button and the file will be moved to the folder.
Source : Wikipedia