FileZilla Features and Overview
Posted on October 28th, 2016
What is Filezilla
The Filezilla is a software which is an FTP application. It consists of Filezilla server and Filezilla client. The Filezilla clients are available for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX while Filezilla server is available only for windows. The Filezilla client supports FTP, SFTP and FTPS but the support for SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), which can be used to share folders over a network, is not implemented in FileZilla Server. FileZilla was started as a computer science class project in the January 2001 by Tim Kosse and two classmates.
Filezilla Features
The Filezilla provides the following features. There are many features but a few important are listed here.
1) It can transfer files in FTP, SFTP, encrypted FTP such as FTPS and SFTP
2) It supports IPv6
3) The file transfer process can be paused and continued
4) Bookmarks for easy access to most frequent use
5) Drag and drop to download and upload
6) Synchronized directory browsing
7) Searches file on the server remotely
These are the important features of the FileZilla. Now let’s see how to use the Filezilla.
Connecting to an FTP Server using FileZilla
There are two ways to connect to an FTP server in Filezilla. They are listed below.
1) Using the Quick Connect bar
2) Using Site Manager
Using the Quick Connect bar
The first method used to connect to the FTP server is using the quick connect bar. In this method, we need to enter the server details in the required fields. We need to provide the hostname, username, password and the port. Then click on the Quickconnect button. You will be connected to the server. The quick connection list will have the last 10 entries. This method is used for quick connections, so there is no way to edit this list. If we need to store the FTP server names, we need to use the second method, the Site Manager.
Using Site Manager
We can use the Site Manager to connect to the FTP server. The Site Manager provides more functionality by allowing us to store entries and configure more parameters than the first method.
Navigating on the server
After we’ve connected to the server, a list of files and directories will be appeared on the right side of the main window. The name of the current remote directory is listed in the edit field which is on the top. Below that, there is the remote directory tree. Under the remote directory, there is a list of the contents of the current remote directory.
We can change the current remote directory by following any of the methods listed below.
1) Type a directory name into the edit field and press enter, or
2) Click a directory in the directory tree, or
3) Double-click a directory in the list of the current directory contents
Synchronized Browsing
Suppose your local computer has an identical directory structure of the server. We can then enable synchronized browsing. Any directory navigation on one machine will be duplicating on the other machine also.
Directory Comparison
The Directory Comparison is used to compare the contents in the local machine and the server. We can enable the Directory Comparison by, View > Directory Comparison, and choose either “compare file size” or “compare modification time.” We could also hide identical files by checking that option. Now click on “Enable”. We can now see color-coded differences between copies of the same file on different machines.
Transferring files
Now we are going to see how to transfer files using the Filezilla. We could upload and download a file by double-clicking on it. It will be added to the transfer queue automatically and the transfer will take place once there is an item in the queue. We can select and transfer the items by right-clicking on them and clicking on the Upload/Download option in order to transfer multiple files or directories. There is a drag and drop facility also available to transfer the files. Click on the item to transfer and drag it to the directory where we need it to be moved. This is an alternative to transfering files.
The Filezilla uses multiple FTP sessions. One session is used only for browsing and the other for transferring which means, you could browse the directories even during a download/upload is going on.
If you need any further assistance please contact our support department.
