Tim Kosse and two of his classmates started FileZilla as a class project in January 2001. It was initially released in February 2001. It uses cross-platform operating system and is written in C++ and wxWidgets. It is available in multilingual language and is an FTP client type. FTP options are used by those who want easy to manage websites. Website owners who want less effort and more control compared to other tools that create and manage websites should use the FTP options. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) has made it easy to transfer files from one host to another. The advantage of this process is that it saves time by replacing the manual update. As of 2011, FileZilla ranks as the #7 most downloaded online FTP program by users. This platform has made it easy to update, edit and delete files. There are five prominent features of FileZilla:
- Directory Comparison: The contents of various local and remote directories can be compared using FileZilla.
- Log: Message logs can be displayed in the window at the top. Shows the commands and responses sent and received by FileZilla.
- Site Manager: This tool is the most used by users. The user can create an account of FTP sites, in combination with connection data, port number and protocol to use, etc.
- Transfer Queue – Displayed in the window at the bottom, the transfer queue shows the actual status of the files being transferred, whether they are active or queued.
- Folder View and File View: This feature provides a graphical interface for FTP. Browsing and viewing folders becomes easy and transferring files between computers is also made easy.
FileZilla comes with several advantages that it provides to its users over and above the features provided by other tools used for site building. The plethora of advantages includes:
- Be available in multiple languages.
- Easy synchronization of local and remote directories.
- Availability of features such as bookmarks, network setup wizards, configurable transfer rate limits, and the option to edit remote files.
The advantages of FileZilla are much more than the disadvantages.
- The scripting issue can be a problem. There is no way to request scripts internally or through a common line. Only supported manually or with interaction.
- Another shortcoming of FileZilla is that older versions don’t use Windows 9X/ME. Use Unicode.
- The new versions of FileZilla that are binary use Mac OSXv10.5. It does not support anything that is ‘Tiger’ or from earlier times. You need ‘Leopard’ compilation.
- Another major problem is that timestamps can be a big problem. If the server supports the MFMT command, timestamps can be preserved.
- Another big problem with this software is that timestamp downloading can be done if timestamps are supported by the partition that supports timestamps for file creation, date and time.
For Microsoft Windows, FileZilla server is absolutely free and is an open source FTP server. SourceForge.net is the source code that hosts the FileZilla server. FTP and FTPS are supported by the server. Compression, virtual file system, message logs, encryption with TLS/SSL and download and upload bandwidth limits are the functions of the server. Big companies like HostGator and GoDaddy support FileZilla. The reason for the popularity of FileZilla is that it is free and has an open source code. The best feature is that it is friendly and easy for beginners and complex and advanced for experienced users.
Go to Filezilla download and see for yourself how it can save you time and effort.