Filezilla

This has been around for a long time, and in wide use, but it's such a handy tool it's worth mentioning in this forum. Filezilla is a free, open source FTP tool. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, which basically means the set of rules used to transfer files from one computer to another. Versions are available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

You can download Filezilla here.

With Filezilla, you can take files from, and upload files to, a web server. If you are building a web site, you put in your Host (e.g. yuma.colostate.edu), Username (e.g. cwis392) and Password in the top Quickconnect bar (circled in blue in the screen shot below). You can usually leave the Port blank.

Click the screenshot to see a larger version of it.

Local files are on the left, and remote files on the web server are on the right. To upload, you navigate to the files you want to transfer by using the directory tree on the left. Select the files you want to transfer (use Ctrl to select multiple files), then right-click and choose Upload. To download files from the web server, navigate to the files you want to transfer in the right pane, and once you have the files selected, right-click and choose download.

Hint: to move up a level in the directory tree, click on the folder icon with the two dots after it, circled in red in the screenshot below.


If you are going to connect to the same server multiple times, you should use the Site Manager to save your login information. Go to the File menu and choose Site Manager. Click New Site (circled in green below) and put in your Host, Username and Password information on the right. Then, when you wish to connect, pull up the Site Manager and click Connect.