File Transfer Protocol

What is FTP?

How to use FTP in Windows -- FileZilla

• Getting a free copy of FileZilla to work off-campus:

  • I recommend that you download a free copy of FileZilla and install it in your PC. For a Windows version of filezilla go to this link and download the latest recommended version (something like FileZilla_3_4_0_win32-setup.exe) and save it.
  • This is a self-extracting file that will install FileZilla in your machine.
  • Look for the setup.exe file in your desktop and double-click on it. You will see installation messages (you can accept the defaults) and at the end you will see the FilleZilla icon in your desktop.  

  Double click on the FileZilla icon and you will see the FileZilla main window, shown below. There are many details displayed at the same time, what can be confusing. Lets customize FileZilla and create an automatic connection to a server.

  

• Customizing FileZilla

• Lets first reduce the number of areas we see, just to two: local site (the PC) and remote site (the server). Select View. You should see the following:


• Well, not exactly! Your original View will have much more items selected, creating the abundance of details you saw before. De-select all items that do not match the above image of View. You are done.

• Creating a profile to connect to another computer

  • Select File, Site Manager and you will se a window to create connections to remote ftp servers:

    

  • click on New Site
  • give a name to the profile (in the example home.ubalt.edu).
  • enter the ftp server name like: home.ubalt.edu
  • select server type: SFTP-SSH File Transfer Protocol
  • select Logontype: normal
  • in User: enter your HOME (network ID) username (UBxxxxx, NWSxxxx, idxxxxxx at UB)
  • in Password: enter you password
  • do not select the Don't Save Password check box (in Labs DO check it for security).
  • finally select it as your Default Site.
  • Select Connect and the profile will be saved and the connection will start as shown below:

    

  • From the next time on, all you have to do is select the profile and click OK. It works similar to File Manager under Windows:

    It is graphical and you do not need to know how to use FTP or other commands by heart, you just drag and drop files (or directories) from the PC to the server, and from the server to the PC.

• Customizing your profile once you are connected:

  • You will see a file manager window as shown above with your local files in the left side and the remote computer files in the right side.

    Note: I suggest you create a directory to store your Web files. In the example above I created a directory 0cisnt in my drive D: to store all my files, organized as sub-directories of the 0cisnt directory.

  • Setting default directories:
    • Open Site Manager again (File, Site Manager) ans select Advanced as shown below:

    

    • Default local: select (or browse to) the local directory you save your files to upload or download in the left side of the FileZilla -- your local PC.
    • Default remote: at UB students should select students and then their accounts UBxxxxx or NWSxxxxx (/students/UBxxxxx or /students/NWSxxxxx, or similar) to show in the right side of the FileZilla screen -- the remote server (HOME in the example). Faculty should select staff and their accounts NTxxxxx or UBxxxxx (/staff/NTxxxxx or /staff/UBxxxxx, or similar).
    • finally click OK. Whenever you connect using the profile you will be automatically connected to your account and directory in the server. In addition, in the left side, you will see the directory in the PC with your files to upload/download.

• Using FileZilla after customization

  • Once all is setup you can start the connection to the server automatically selecting File, Connect to the default site, or selecting a server from the pulldown menu in the top left side of the toolbar , or yet opening and selecting a server from Site Manager.

  • To upload or dowload files, or directories, just drag and drop, or right-click on the file or directory and select download or upload. You can also create directories, delete files, in the local or remote machine, etc.
  • For more details go to the documentation page of FileZilla. UB OTS also keeps a tutorial.

  Note: FileZilla is used to connect to servers using advanced security and encryption: SSH and SSL, or simple FTP, unencripted connections.

What is anonymous FTP?

This page is maintained by Al Bento who can be reached at abento@ubalt.edu. This page was last updated on March 30, 2011. Although we will attempt to keep this information accurate, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided.