How to install Filezilla on Ubuntu

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standardized network protocol used to transfer files between a client and a server over the internet or any other TCP/IP network. FTP has been at the top of the list for transferring files across computers and networks due to its reliabilty and efficiency in handling a humongous amounts of time.

In this tutorial, you will learn how you can install and configure FTP servers from a graphical interface using the FileZilla utility.

What is FileZilla?

FileZilla is free cross-platform FTP client that allows you to access FTP servers via the FTP protocol. FileZilla also supports connectivity of the FTP protocol via the TLS or SSL, FTP via SSH and more.

Installing FileZilla on Ubuntu

Luckily, there are various methods of installing the FileZilla client on Ubuntu and other Ubuntu based distributions. The recommended and easiest method to setup FileZilla is to use the apt package manager.

Start by updaing the package list:

sudo apt-get update

Once complete, install the FileZilla utility:

sudo apt-get install filezilla

The command should locate the latest FileZilla package and set it up on your system.

First Time FileZilla Use

To launch FileZilla, open the Applications menu and search for FileZilla. Open the provided app to launch.

You should see a window as shown:

FileZilla has a left and right panel interface. The left interface shows the files and directories on your local machine. On the right hide, you will see an empty pane. This is because the right pane is reserved for the files and directories on the remote machine. Once you connect to an ftp server, its contents will be listed here.

FileZilla Connect to an FTP Server

Before connecting to a remote FTP server, you need to ensure you note down the server’s IP address, the target username and the associated password.

In the FileZilla toolbar, you will see an interface that allows you to enter the Host, Username, Password and Port.

In the host section, enter the IP address of your FTP Server. Enter the username and the associated password. If FTP is running on the default port, you can skip the port input, by default FileZilla will connect to port 21.

Once all the details are in order, click QuikcConnect to connect to the FTP Server.

FileZilla will attempt to connect and authenticate using the provided details. If successful, you should see the remote directory listing on your right pane.

You can browse various files and directories. Once you locate a file you wish to download, right click and select the Download option.

Conclusion

In this post, we provided simple and quick steps of installing and running the FileZilla client on your Ubuntu machine. Stay tune for more tutorials.