FileZilla - A Short Review
Writing by admin on Sunday, 22 of July , 2007 at 2:45 pm
Often I get questions regarding the software that I use on a daily basis. While I use Firefox, the GIMP, Amarok and VLC daily, I also use a fantastic FTP client, FileZilla, many times a day. In the past I have used clients such as CuteFTP and WS_FTP, but these require payment of $30+, so my trials would always expire forcing me to change. 
Then, a couple of years ago, I came across FileZilla, one of the most highly downloaded applications from SourceForge.net. Not only is FileZilla open-source (under the GPL), but it is also available on all major systems - Linux, Mac, and Windows.
The current stable release, 2.2.32, was released in April of this year, while the current unstable, 3 Beta 11, was just released a few days ago. Currently, I am running a previous beta release and have noticed no issues - so if interested, I recommend downloading the most recent beta rather than the stable. As far as installation is concerned, most Linux distributions will have FileZilla in their repositories, making it a simple apt-get install filezilla away on many Debian-based distros and available in the package managers for others. Those using Macs, the .tar files are available on the FileZilla page at SourceForge.net and for Windows users, the .exe installer is also available on the FileZilla page.
Follow the link for the rest of the article.
Site Map The FileZilla interface is far simpler than any of the other FTP clients I have used while remaining very powerful. Located at the top is Quickconnect, which can be used to…well…connect to a server quickly. Below that is the message log which shows information regarding the connection. The main section is broken into two columns, one for local and one for remote. Similar to any file directory system, this is the core area where the user can transfer files between the local and remote site. In all operating systems the user is also able to drag and drop files from outside of FileZilla (ie . drag from file from the desktop to the remote folder of choice). Finally, the last portion of the screen is that of the transfer queue. This section shows details and the progress of the current file transfer. Below is a screenshot showing a connection to the FTP server on this website (click to enlarge).
FileZilla also contains a multitude of settings that can be tweaked to customize the experience. The configuration wizard is a great utility for those having difficulties getting around their router. Additionally, transfer details can be changed to adjust for speed limits, file types, and more. Below is a screenshot showing the main page of the settings window.
Perhaps my favourite part of FileZilla is the site manager. This allows the user to store log-in information as well as the specifics regarding default directories and transfer settings. For someone like myself who regularly uses many different FTP sites, this is a great utility that works flawlessly. Below is a screenshot of the site manager.
All FTP clients can perform most of the same actions, but I have never used a client that can perform file transfers as simply and cleanly as FileZilla. Sure, the clients that sell for $39.99 do offer more features, but for 98% of users that are looking for simple file transfers, these features are generally unnecessary. I have talked to a few friends who have found these ‘feature-full’ clients very difficult to use for basic actions and have now started to use FileZilla.If you are looking for an FTP client, I would highly recommend checking out FileZilla. Get it on the FileZilla page at SourceForge.net.
Cole
PS. I would like to invite readers to share their experiences with both FileZilla and other FTP clients. Also, I do recognize that default clients in many Linux distributions such as KFTPgrabber work very similarly to FileZilla.
Category: Open-source, My Computer, Cross-platform, Free software, Review
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