Today, it’s already not surprising anyone with a personal website, since the Internet has penetrated deeply into all areas of our daily activities. Unfortunately, not all users to this day have even the slightest idea of the principles of working with FTP-servers, but without this it would be difficult to organize a normal site! Content alone is worth what, let alone proper management.
Take, for example, FileZilla: almost a few people know how to use it, and yet it is one of the most common and best applications for working with FTP servers. Since at the first start you may encounter difficulties, we have prepared a short instruction for you.
What is it for?
First, we give a small practical example that can show you the importance of this utility. Do you know how to use FileZilla for Myarena? But it may be required for any user who creates their own server for playing Minecraft with friends.
First, on the official Myarena website, you will need to enable access to your account via FTP. We confirm all our actions, after which you are provided with a username and password to access your game server.
Then everything is simple: we enter the received information into the appropriate fields, and then click on the “Quick Connect” button. If everything went well, a field will appear in the right side of the dialog box, in which data about all the files available on your game server will be displayed.
Here's how to use FileZilla. Ucoz and other free hosting services also provide the possibility of using this program. Read more about the principles of setting up the application below.
Establish a connection
First you need to open the program, and then enter the data in the fields described below.
- A host is the domain on which your site is hosted. Of course, you must have your own account on it.
- In the "Username" indicate your nickname.
- Accordingly, in the field "Password" enter your identification data.
- Port. By default, “21” is set, and if there is no need, this data can be left unchanged.
As soon as you click on the “Quick Connection” button, the program will automatically connect to your hosting, check your identity, and then you can start working with it. An indicator of this will be a list of files and folders, which will immediately appear in the main application window.
How to manage files?
If you created your site on a local computer, you will probably want to upload it to a server on the Internet. To do this, you need to know that the public_html directory is the root directory. This means that it will contain all the files on your site. Take the folder from the "Local site", and then drag it into the public_html directory located in the "Remote site". If everything went well, then all the files will be available on your site.
Of course, from time to time you will need to change or even completely delete content on a remote server. To do this, select the document you need with the left mouse button, and then right-click on it. In the menu that appears, select the “View / Edit” option.
A little bit about editing
Note that the file opens in a regular text editor. If the system defaults to another program (NotePad ++, for example), then the document will be sent to it. As soon as you finish editing and save the document, the program will ask about your further actions: is it possible to delete a local copy of the file, or finally send it to the site.
What operations can be performed with files?
We have already said that one of the most functional FTP clients is FileZilla. How to use it if you need to do something more complicated than uploading or deleting a pair of pictures? In the menu "File" you will find a huge number of various options. Let's describe the capabilities of the most important.
- The “Download” function will allow you to receive files from a remote server by copying them to your computer.
- Delay this operation will help the option "Add files to the queue."
- The “create directory” command, when applied to the root directory, will allow you to create a new folder to place content in it.
- Accordingly, the “Delete” option is used to erase already unnecessary files and directories.
- With the Rename command, you can easily change the name of any file or directory.
- If you need special permissions to access this or that folder, use the "Permissions". You can easily edit access rights to any documents, including permission to change, read or delete them.
And this is not all the skills that distinguish FileZilla. How to use its other functions, which are designed to create and edit web pages?
Site manager
There is an option “Site Manager” in the “File” menu. This is a kind of password store, which stores all the identification data necessary to access your site. Thus, you will spend much less time when you need to create new content or edit the old contents of your personal page.
For this option to work properly, it is extremely important to correctly enter the host name, as well as the FTP port. However, the value of the latter is already set by default (21), and therefore, without real need, it is not necessary to change it.
It is also important to choose your preferred connection method. If your hosting supports direct connect, use the FTP protocol (File Transfer Protocol). However, SFTP is much more often used - SSH File Transfer Protocol, which supports strong encryption of transmitted and received data. All other versions of connections supported by the program also support various secure access protocols.
Account Login Methods
We recommend setting the “Input Type” field to “Normal”. In this case, you enter your login and password into the necessary fields, which will subsequently be used for identification on the site. Here's how to use the FileZilla server. The application interface also allows its use in other modes.
If your server allows, you can set an anonymous connection type. In this case, the entrance to the site will be performed without providing the server with any of your personal data. Attention! In the case when you are working on a computer that other users have access to, we strongly recommend that you use the "Request password at login" option. This option does not allow the program to save identification data, which significantly increases the security of working with the site. Of course, this will require you to enter your username and password each time.
Interactive is also a similar login method, but its difference is that a password will be requested each time a connection is made to the server. Simply put, when batch uploading files to a site, you will be forced to enter credentials to transfer each of them. Since you have to use FileZilla server a lot and often, you cannot call this method convenient.
Other features
To simplify the management of several projects, the creators of the application provided the possibility of having a universal account, which will store all the data about your account, including information about hosts and all your passwords. Such a function is extremely convenient in the same case, if the computer is used by several users. In addition, it is so convenient to sort your projects by their focus (data for sports and construction sites, for example).
As soon as all the necessary information is entered, you can click on the "Connect" button. All saved settings are available for change or deletion at any time. Important! Before using the FileZilla client, we advise you to verify the accuracy of the usernames and passwords you enter, since if they do not match, you can spend a lot of time and effort looking for the reason for the inability to establish a connection.
Extra options
In the "Site Manager" there is also a tab "Advanced", the contents of which we would advise to pay special attention to. For example, you can easily install even the preferred type of server used (Unix, DOS or VMS). However, if you do not quite represent the results of your actions, then it would be much more justified to leave all the settings in the Default position.
If you want to change the number of simultaneously active applications, then you need to go to the "Transfer Settings". In addition, you may need the "Encodings" section, which contains all the tools for changing the parameter of the same name. Unfortunately, they are not always determined automatically, and therefore, instead of normal fonts, in this case you will see obscure characters.
That's what FileZilla is for. How to use it, we have already told.