Build a Home FTP Server with FileZilla

Upload and download files on your home PC from anywhere by turning it into a personal FTP server. With a home FTP server, you can upload and download files on your home hard drive from the office, your friend's house, or to your laptop while you're on the road using any FTP client. Setting up an FTP server may sound like a complicated undertaking only system administrators can handle, but it's actually quite easy and free with open source software FileZilla. You've already heard of FileZilla's FTP client application, but the FileZilla project also offers a server application for Windows. Today we'll build an FTP server on your Windows  PC with FileZilla for easy file transfers from any computer.

Install the FileZilla FTP Server

The FileZilla server installation is a regular Windows "just press Next" wizard, and for most users, the suggested default settings will work. However, let's take a look at its initial settings anyway, since they'll affect how you work with your server. Here's how to get FileZilla going:

• Download the FileZilla server application. Even though the FileZilla FTP client is available for multiple operating systems, the server app is Windows-only (and works for Windows XP, Vista and 2000). Download it and kick off the installation wizard. As of this writing, the latest server version is 0.9.25.
• Run the server as a Windows Service. First FileZilla will give you the option of how it should start up: as a Windows service or not, automatically or manually. Windows services are processes that run on your PC which you can manage from the Services management pane. There's more on how to manage that below, but at this point, running FileZilla as a Windows service that runs automatically is the default option. If you want your FTP server on by default, choose "Start as service, started automatically (default)" as shown. Otherwise, choose "Start as service, started manually."

  

  In this pane you'll also set the port for the admin interface to use. By default it's 14147, and you're most likely safe leaving it at that. If you do change that port number, make a note of what it is—you'll need it to connect to the server later on.

• Set the server administrative interface to launch automatically (or not). On the final installation dialog, choose whether you want the server admin window to launch automatically when the current Windows user logs on, when any user logs on, or if it should be started manually.

• Run and connect to the server with the admin interface. As the installation wizard completes, set it to start the server admin interface. This is the window where you'll configure your server and monitor its activity. The first time you run the admin interface, it will ask you for the server's address and port. Since the server is running on your PC—the same one the admin interface is running on—its address is localhost, or 127.0.0.1. The default port is 14147 (or whatever you may have changed it to, as noted above), as shown:

  
  
  
• If this is the only FTP server you'll be administering (most likely it is), check off the "Always connect to this server" box to bypass this dialog in the future.

Create Server Users

If all's gone well, your server's up and running—but no one can use it yet, since you haven't given anyone permission. To set up a server user, from the Edit menu choose Users. In the Users dialog on the right hand side, hit the Add button to create a new user and assign a password. Then, on the left side, select "Shared Folders" to set what folders that user will have access to on your server. Here I've created a user named gina and granted read access to the C:\data\ directory.

Notice you can fine-tune file access rights for each user: grant read-only rights (download only), write rights (to upload files), and whether or not the user can delete files or create directories, too.

If you want to grant several users access to your server all with the same rights and directory access, instead of creating each one individually, set up a user group. For example, if you're sharing your MP3 directory with friends, make a user group called "music fans" with access to the correct directory and add users to that group, which automatically gives them those rights. Then, if you move your music directory you only have to edit the group, not each user in it. To manage user groups, from the Edit menu, choose Groups.

Log into the Server

Now that the server's up and running with users, it's time to log in and try uploading and downloading. Using any FTP client (like the FileZilla client or FireFTP for Firefox) enter the server address, user name and password.

• Server address If you're FTP'ing across your home network (like from your upstairs PC to your bedroom PC), you can reach the server by using its internal network address (most likely something like 192.168.xx.xx.) From the command line, type ipconfig to see what that address is. If you want to log into your FTP server over the internet, set up a memorable URL for it and allow connections from outside your network. To do so, check out how to assign a domain name to your home server and how to access your home server behind a router and firewall.
• User name and password This is one of the users you set up in FileZilla's admin interface, not the server admin user name. If friends, family, and co-workers will be logging into your FTP server, give them each a their specific username and password to log in (along with the server address.)

Use your FTP server to fetch files stored at home from anywhere, share files with friends and family, or back up files across your network. (Free backup software SyncBack supports backup over FTP. Here's more on how to use Syncback.)

A word about security: FTP is not a secure protocol; all the file transfers happen in the clear, which makes them ripe for sniffing. FileZilla does support encrypted FTP access, and we recommend using that or a VPN like Hamachi to secure file transfers over the internet. FileZilla's secure FTP server setup is beyond the scope of this article, but you can go into the server admin interface's settings area to configure it.

Starting and Stopping Your Server in Windows Services

Finally, to shut down or restart your FileZilla server running as a Windows service, from Control Panel, Administrative Tools, launch Services. Right-click on the FileZilla FTP Server item on the list to stop it, edit its Properties, or restart it, as shown.

Other home servers you can set up yourself include a home web server with Apache, a home SSH server with Cygwin and a home VNC server to remote control your computer.

How to rename multiple files quickly with FreeCommander

This free Windows utility gives you the ability to rename a batch of files with one click.

 

FreeCommander is a feature-rich yet free file management program for Windows that lets you view your file hierarchies in two separate panes. Among its many features, and the one that is the sole focus of this post, is its ability to rename multiple files in one fell swoop. It lets you select a group of files and create a sequential list with a single click.

Take those images you just imported from your camera--IMG0154.jpg, IMG0155.jpg, IMG0156.jpg--and turn them into something more meaningful, such as beach1.jpg, beach2.jpg, etc.

When you launch the app, you'll be greeted with a small window with two panes. Use either pane to drill down to find the files you'd like to rename. Highlight the files to rename and select File > Rename (hitting F2 will also do the trick).

Next, from the Multi rename window, you'll see your selected files at the top and renaming options at the bottom. Below, under the Pattern header, is a File name field for renaming your files. You can type in a new file name, and you can also type (or choose from the blue downward arrow to the right) in placeholders to keep some of the existing file name. The symbol [n] is a placeholder for the name of the file, and using [c] lets you use the counter to the right to number your files. From the counter area, you can choose a starting number, the interval between each numbered file, and how many digits to include.

 

For example, I have a group of photos imported from my camera with useless IMG1523.png file names. I typed "fall trip [c]" into the name field and chose to start at 1, step by 1, and 2 for the number of digits in the Counter field, and my photos were then renamed fall trip 01.png, fall trip 02.png and so on. Much more useful for me.

There is a lot more to FileCommander, but the batch renaming function is great. And my favorite aspect of it is the preview of your new file names it shows at the top, next to the old names, making experimenting with the many renaming options risk-free. When you find a naming convention that works, click the Rename button and all of your files are instantly renamed.

For a different approach to renaming multiple files, check out Rapid Streams Name-Dropper.

Understanding Windows 7 GodMode

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder.

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder's icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. I'm not sure it's my idea of playing God, but it is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.