FileZilla: Fast and Smooth FTP Client

Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Chinmoy Kanjilal in Internet Tools, Software, Windows

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filezillaFTP is a very useful application service and is of prime importance for bloggers and webserver admins for transferring files to and from servers.  It is also necessary for general users to download files from FTP servers.

A good FTP application can make interactions with a server easy. Previously, we covered 5 great and free FTP clients.  FileZilla was included on that list, and we like it so much here at LostInTechnology that we felt it deserved its own post.

Features

Some of the great features of FileZilla as an FTP client are:

Site Manager

Site-Manager

Site-Manager

The site manager of FileZilla is very powerful and has a lot of features.

Under the General tab, we have option to provide host details which includes host address, connection port, server type selection and login with username and password. There are options to create bookmarks to selected folders on the site, which provides a direct login to the specified location from the Bookmarks drop down menu.

Under the Advanced tab, we can select the server architecture and the default server and local root locations to load when connecting to the site. Options to adjust server timezone offset is also available for a better synchronization.

The Transfer settings tab allows us to select between Active and Passive transfer modes. We can also limit the number of simultaneous connections to the server, managing bandwidth effectively.

The Charset tab allows us to select the character set of the server. This setting can be generally left at Autodetect.

Quick Connect

quick-connect-filezilla

quick-connect-filezilla

Quick Connect lets us connect to the  site quickly by directly entering the host address, username, port and password. There are no other settings required for this. The quick connect also saves a history of your last visited sites. This makes it easy to reconnect later and eliminates the need for entering details over and over again. The quick-connect history can be cleaned as well if your computer is accessed by many people.

The View

The view is divided into two areas. On the left, we have the local disk, and on the right, we have the server storage. Any changes made to files on the left, prompt you to upload the file with the changes. Choosing yes, keeps data synchronized. The prompt can be safely ignored as well.

Queue Management

filezilla-queue

filezilla-queue

FileZilla also provides us with advanced queue management which lets us manage the files being uploaded in an easy way through the GUI. The application supports multi-threaded uploads which is a very useful feature and speeds up transfer of files to a huge extent.

Other Features

Else than the features listed above, there are one click buttons to

  • Break all connections and disconnect from the server.
  • Toggle file transfer and put the file processing queue on hold.
  • Search directories recursively.

Each frame shows extra details like

  • The queue area shows the current transfer speed and the number of files queued up. It also shows the failed transfers if any and the current transfer progress.
  • The files area shows the number of files, directories and the size of all the files under the current directory level.

Options for entering custom commands are also present. There is a drop-arrow which gives us access to the last used sites.

Conclusion

With all these features, it’s amazing that FileZilla is totally free. To try out FileZilla, head over to the download page here. FileZilla is available for both Windows and Linux.

(By) Chinmoy Kanjilal is a technology, web2.0 and Linux enthusiast and evangelist. He has an in depth knowledge of working of Softwares, Operating Systems, Hardwares and Computer Networks. Blogging is his favourite pasttime. He blogs primarily at Techarraz. You can find him on Twitter @chinmoykanjilal.

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One Response to “FileZilla: Fast and Smooth FTP Client”

  1. Chris Smith

    20. Nov, 2009

    I think that my favorite part of FileZilla is the Quick Connect Feature. It saves a lot of time and memory for me.

    I help a fair amount of people with their websites and have found that using Quick Connect is the only way that I can keep things organized.

    The only problem that I have with Quick Connect is that there is no way to password protect all of the accounts. You say that you can clean your history, which is nice, but I would like an option to protect with a main password.

    Nice post summarizing all of FileZilla’s features. I use it on Mac and PC. ;)

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