Using FileZilla on Windows to connect to FTP servers
FileZilla is a free, open source (GNU/GPL) FTP client for Windows. It also happens to be one of the best FTP clients for Windows, if not the best. It's a great alternative to the aging WS_FTP program. FileZilla works well under all versions of Windows XP, Vista and 7 both 32bit and 64bit systems.
Please download the recommended FileZilla SETUP.EXE installer from here.
Once downloaded, double click the installer and follow the installation wizard. Just leave everything at default settings.
This is the main FileZilla window as it opens up for the first time. Let's simplify it by turning off the local and remote site directory trees. They're not that essential. Click those two buttons as shown below...
Now, the FileZilla window is a bit simpler. On the left side it show your local drives and folders and on the right it show the folders on the FTP server once you're connected to one.
Connection status pane on the top shows messages exchanged between FileZilla and the remote server. Any errors such as wrong username or password will show here. You can scroll it up and down.
The activity pane on the bottom shows file download and upload progress.
You can scroll it up and down too.
In order to connect to a server it's best to add it to your favorites first. To do that click the first button on the toolbar as shown on the right. This is the Site Manager button...
This will bring up the Site Manager window. Click the New Site button...
We'll use Titan as an example. Give the new site a descriptive name on the left. Then on the right enter the server address and login credentials.
Host: this is the FTP server address: titan.skb.med.nyu.edu in our example
Server Type: whatever you were instructed to chose, in most cases, and in our example, it would be FTP - File Transfer Protocol
Logon type: again, you might have received particular instructions but in our case is just Normal, Anonymous is also quite common
User: this is the FTP user name, in our example it's Titan, this field is not available if you select Anonymous
Password: this is the FTP password in our case it's also Titan, this field is not available if you select Anonymous
Account: this field is not available for Normal and Anonymous logins.
Click the Advanced tab. Here you can enter some additional information. This is not necessary in most situations (unless you were instructed otherwise) but it will save you some time when connecting to a server.
Default local directory: FileZilla will open this directory in the left pane whenever you connect to this server. I selected a folder called Downloads on my desktop, you can chose any folder or leave this blank in which case
FileZilla will default to the list of drives under My Computer.
Default remote directory: the same as above but for the remote FTP server. Often your destination directory will be buried somewhere deep in the hierarchy. Entering a path to this directory here will save you some clicking and navigation as FileZilla will take you directly there every time you connect to this server. In our example you can enter/Part_Till_5am as the default remote directory.
All the other settings should be left at their defaults. Again, you may be instructed to change some but they are server specific.
Click OK to save this server information.
Now you can click on the little triangle next to the Site Manager button and select Titan from the list of available saved servers.
The connection process may take a short while...
Once the connection is established you will see the contents of the remote FTP server in the right pane and your local computer in the left pane.
To download a file or folder drag it from the right to a location in the left, to upload a file do the opposite: drag from a location on the left to the server window on the right.
To navigate around simply double click the drives and directories. To back click on the drop down menu as show on the right and go back in the folder hierarchy.
You can click the top folder icon with two dots next to it to go one level up to the parent folder.
If you'd like to be able to do some advanced folder navigation you can re-eanble those directory trees that we have disabled at the beginning as shown below.
