FileZilla Tutorial
INTRODUCTION
What is FileZilla for?
FileZilla is a free, open source cross-platform FTP (File Transfer Protocol) application that is used for transferring files over the Internet. It allows a user to transfer files from a local computer to a remote computer. With it being free and having a simple interface, FilZilla makes transferring files from a client to a server or from a server to a client extremely simple. It also has many features such as SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol/Secure File Transfer Protocol) and TFPS, which adds support for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) cryptographic protocols.
What was FileZilla used for on my IDB project?
There are FileZilla Client and FileZilla Server applications, but my group used FileZilla Client for the IDB project. It was used for transferring our project production code files to our AWS servers using SFTP. Since we had 2 seperate AWS servers, one for the front-end and one for the back-end, we used 2 different SFTP connections, one for each server. Whenever we added a new feature for our website that is working correctly on our local server we would connect to our AWS server using FileZilla Client and transfer new or updated files to the corresponding server. Moreover, we also transferred our Dockerfile file and docker-compose file to the server using FileZilla Client so that we can just SSH into the server and run “docker-compose up -d,” which will automatically build our Docker image if there isn’t one already and build the Docker container and run Flask or npm in the background of the Docker container.
HISTORY
Who created FileZilla, when was FileZilla created, where was FileZilla created?
Tim Kosse created FileZilla in his senior computer science course with two other classmates at RWTH Aachen University in 2001. They were trying to build something useful that is neither too simple nor too difficult to implement as their class project. They don’t remember how they settled on building FileZilla, but when they did they discussed under which license they should release it before writing their code. They realized that there were already multiple FTP clients so they decided to make it an open source project. And FileZilla was initially released on 22 June 2001.
INSTALLATION
step by step instructions on how to install it on different environments, especially on Docker
Since FileZilla Client is a cross-platform application that supports Windows, Linux, and macOS, downloading it is really simple. Just Google “FileZilla,” go to their website, and click “Download FileZilla Client” (Pick FileZilla Client if you want to transfer files and pick FileZilla Server if you want to make files available for others) under the “Quick download links” header. Next, choose the file to download based on your platform. Now just wait until it finishes installing! In my opinion, I don’t see a reason to install FTP in Docker but run “ docker run -d -p 20-21:20-21 -p 65500-65515:65500-65515 -v /YOUR_DIRECTORY:/var/ftp:ro metabrainz/docker-anon-ftp” if you want an quick, anonymous ftp server docker image.
USE
step by step by instructions on how to use it
*This is specifically for connecting to an AWS EC2 server using SFTP to transfer local files.
Once you create a running AWS EC2 instance, you will receive its EC2 key pairs. Once you have this key pairs saved locally, open up FileZilla and open its Site Manager.
And then click New Site to create a new site for new connections.
Select SFTP — SSH File Transfer Protocol in the “Protocol” drop-down and type the IPv4 public IP of your EC2 instance (you can look this up in the EC2 Management Console) in the “Host” textbox. Then, select Key file as the “Logon Type,” type “ec2-user” in the “User” textbox, and click “Browse” and select your EC2 key pairs file in your local computer for the “Key file.” Finally, click “Connect.”
Now, you will see the directory tree of your AWS EC2 server on the right column. In order to transfer files to the server, all you need to do is drag a file or a directory from the left column (local) to the right column (server). It is that simple. You can transfer multiple files and directories at once and you will see all the queued files, failed transfers, and successful transfers on the bottom tab!
USE CASES
details about why to use it
Although there are many other FTP applications other than FileZilla, I believe FileZilla is the most popular one among them, which means that it is easier to find a tutorial on how to use it and a solution when you are stuck or getting an error. Moreover, its FTP client application has 2 columns, left being the client and right being the server, and I think this interface is super simple and friendly to the users. Finally, FileZilla is a simple free program that does its job, therefore who wants to spend any money or do extra work?
ALTERNATIVES
What other tools are equivalent to FileZilla?
WinSCP is a popular free SFTP and FTP client for Windows. CoreFTP is also a fast, reliable FTP client for Windows. Also, Firefox developed a free, open-source, cross-platform FTP client, FireFTP, for their browser as an add-on, but recently they removed it after having it for 13 years with 25 million downloads. However, Firefox’s legacy web browser, Waterfox, still has FireFTP as an add-on. Lastly, Cyberduck is a free open source FTP client for Mac.
Why did I choose FileZilla?
I was reading a tutorial on how to run Docker on an Amazon Web Services server and I learned that you can transfer local files to an AWS server using FileZilla and run Docker and docker-compose on the server easily. Since it was free and I had a useful tutorial on how to use it for my IDB project, I chose to use FileZilla.
