FileZilla

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FileZilla Icon
FileZilla 3.3.1.png
FileZilla 3.3.1 on Ubuntu 10.04
Developer(s) Tim Kosse
Initial release 22 June 2001 (2001-06-22)
Stable release 3.7.0.1 (May 10, 2013; 9 days ago (2013-05-10)) [±]
Preview release 3.7.0 RC1 (29 April 2013; 20 days ago (2013-04-29)) [±]
Written in C++, wxWidgets
Operating system Cross-platform
Available in Multilingual
Type FTP client
License GNU General Public License Version 2
Website filezilla-project.org

FileZilla is free and cross-platform FTP software, consisting of FileZilla Client and FileZilla Server. Binaries are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS). As of 18 April 2011, FileZilla Client was the 7th most popular download of all time from SourceForge.net.[1] Support for SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is not implemented in Filezilla Server.[2]

FileZilla's source code is hosted on SourceForge and the project was featured as Project of the Month in November 2003.[3]

Despite the similar names used by Mozilla, FileZilla has no relation to the Mozilla Project.

Contents

History [edit]

FileZilla was started as a computer science class project in the second week of January 2001 by Tim Kosse and two classmates. Before they started to write the code, they discussed on which licence they should release the code. They decided to make FileZilla an open-source project, because there were already many FTP clients available and they didn't think that they would sell a single copy if they made FileZilla commercial.[4]

Reception [edit]

In May 2008 Chris Foresman assessed FTP clients for Ars Technica, saying of FileZilla: "Some friends in the tech support world often recommend the free and open-source FileZilla, which offers a Mac OS X version in addition to Windows and Linux. But I've never been thrilled about its busy interface, which can be daunting for novice users."[5]

Writing for Ars Technica in August 2008 Emil Protalinski said: "this week's free, third-party application recommendation is FileZilla.... This FTP client is very quick and is regularly updated. It may not have a beautiful GUI, but it certainly is fast and has never let me down."[6]

Go Daddy, Clarion University of Pennsylvania and National Capital Freenet recommend FileZilla for uploading files to their web hosting services.[7][8][9]

FileZilla is available in the repositories of many Linux distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Trisquel and Parabola GNU/Linux.[10][11][12][13]

In January 2012 cNet.com gave FileZilla their highest rating of spectacular, 5 out of 5 stars.[14]

Criticism [edit]

From version 3 onwards, Filezilla stores all saved usernames and passwords as plain text files. This allows any malware that has gained access to the user's system to simply read the data stored in these files and to remotely transfer this data to the attacker. FileZilla's author responded to such criticism saying "If your system is secure, you can use nuclear missile launch codes as desktop background."[15]

The practice of saving plaintext passwords is, however, sometimes considered a better practice than a false sense of security, as some people characterize the effects of password encryption.[16]

Storing encrypted private key files is still supported in current versions, as well as using ssh-agent, in the same way as previous versions of Filezilla. Private key authentication is usually recommended over password-based authentication.[17]

FileZilla Server [edit]

FileZilla Server
FileZilla Icon
FileZilla server.png
FileZilla Server main interface
Developer(s) Tim Kosse, et al.
Stable release 0.9.41 (February 26, 2012; 14 months ago (2012-02-26)) [±]
Preview release none (n/a) [±]
Written in C++
Operating system Windows
Type FTP server
License GPL
Website filezilla-project.org

FileZilla Server is a sister product of FileZilla Client. It is an FTP server supported by the same project and features support for FTP and FTP over SSL/TLS.[18]

FileZilla Server is a free, open source FTP server. Its source code is hosted on SourceForge.net.

Features [edit]

FileZilla Server supports FTP and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS).[19] It includes numerous functionalities, including:

Issues [edit]

Unlike some other FTP clients, FileZilla does not implement a workaround for a bug in the IIS server which causes file corruption when resuming large file downloads.[20]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ SourceForge.net: All-Time Top Downloads
  2. ^ "FileZilla FTP Server - FileZilla Wiki". Wiki.filezilla-project.org. Retrieved 2012-08-27. 
  3. ^ SourceForge.net: Project of the Month (2003-11)
  4. ^ < FileZilla history
  5. ^ Foresman, Chris (15 May 2008). "First Look: Cyberduck 3 is a great, free FTP client for Mac". Ars Technica. Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  6. ^ Protalinski, Emil (1 August 2008). "Friday evening Microsoft links, FileZilla edition". Ars Technica. Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  7. ^ Go Daddy (2012). "Connecting to Your Hosting Account with FileZilla (FTP)". Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  8. ^ Clarion University of Pennsylvania (2008). "Share and Retrieve Files on the Clarion Network ("Jupiter" space)". Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  9. ^ National Capital Freenet (January 2012). "Publishing Web Pages". Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  10. ^ Debian (2012). "Package: filezilla (3.3.3-1)". Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  11. ^ Canonical Ltd (December 2011). "“filezilla” package in Ubuntu". Retrieved 7 January 2012. 
  12. ^ Trisquel (2012). "Trisquel -- Package Search Results -- filezilla". Retrieved 4 June 2012. 
  13. ^ Parabola GNU/Linux (April 2012). "Parabola - Package Database". Retrieved 4 June 2012. 
  14. ^ "FileZilla - CNET Download.com". Download.cnet.com. Retrieved 2012-10-04. 
  15. ^ Kosse, Tim (23 February 2004). "Hide password File?". Retrieved 17 August 2012. 
  16. ^ "Plain Text Passwords – Pidgin – Trac". Developer.pidgin.im. Retrieved 2012-08-27. 
  17. ^ "SSH/OpenSSH/Keys - Community Ubuntu Documentation". Help.ubuntu.com. 2011-03-20. Retrieved 2012-08-27. 
  18. ^ Trapani, Gina (January 2008). "Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla". Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  19. ^ a b c FileZilla Project, FileZilla FTP Server, accessed: 8 April 2012
  20. ^ Ticket #4672 (assigned Bug report) - Download continues past 100% corrupting downloaded zip file

External links [edit]