Most people, by default, rely on cloud storage for wireless transfers between computers. However, there is a better, faster way to transfer files wirelessly (as long as they’re connected to the same local network.) Instead of uploading files to the cloud just to access them on a different device, you can use FileZilla. FileZilla is a free and open-source app that lets you wirelessly drag-and-drop files between devices. It’s much faster than the cloud route, especially for large file transfers.

Why use FileZilla instead of cloud transfers

It’s faster and simpler

FileZilla came out in 2001, and it’s one of the most popular open-source apps in the world. It’s available for Windows, Linux, and macOS machines. It uses FTP or the File Transfer Protocol behind the scenes to connect devices and share files between them.

This protocol has been around since the 70s, and it’s universally supported. Since it runs on your local network, the transfer speed is limited only by your local network. You can expect Gigabit speeds over Ethernet and around half that over Wi-Fi connections.

How to set up FileZilla on your computer

Installing and using FileZilla

You just need two things to make this work:

1. FileZilla Client app on the receiving computer and FileZilla Server app on the computer sharing files.
2. Both computers should be connected to the same Wi-Fi or router via Ethernet.

This will be a one-time setup. Once it’s set up, you can move files just by dragging them between the local and remote panes.

For this demo, I’ll be using a Windows and a Linux machine. The Windows computer will be the client and the Linux machine will be the server, which shares its files. The FileZilla interface is roughly identical on all platforms, so the step-by-step instructions are mostly identical too.

The apps are freely available on the FileZilla website. To start, install the FileZilla client on your local computer. I’ll be installing it on my Windows computer. You can grab the right installer for your machine from FileZilla’s website or use a command-line package manager. Once you’ve installed and set up FileZilla, you’ll find a split-screen interface with interactive file trees.

One of the panes shows all the files on your current computer (labeled as local site) and the other pane shows files from the target computer (labeled as remote site). You can simply drag files or folders from one pane to another to transfer files between two computers. For smaller files, it should be almost instant.

The remote site will be blank by default. This pane is where files from the FTP server will show up. You’ll also see input fields at the top and a “Quick Connect” button. This is where you can enter details of the target FTP and connect to it.

Set up FileZilla on the other computer

Install and configure an FTP server using FileZilla

Next, we’ll install the FileZilla Server app on the computer that’s sharing the files. For me, that’s my Linux computer. I can either install FileZilla Server using the prebuilt binaries available on the FileZilla website, or I can use my command-line package manager.

Once it’s installed, it’ll show a pop-up asking to connect to localhost. This tells FileZilla Server that we want it to run on the same computer it’s installed on. It’ll ask for the password too. The password is the same one you use to unlock your computer.

To start the FTP server and point it at the folders or files we want to share, click Server > Configure. Or press Ctrl+F. Select the Users tab and then click Add to create a new user. Give it a username of your choice (you’ll need this later.) Select “Do not authenticate” under the Authentication menu.

Then all you need to do is enter the directory paths to the folders you want to share. For the virtual path, just type a forward slash and hit Enter. For the Native Path, enter the actual path to the shared folder. Click Add under the Mount Points menu to add more paths. It should look something like this. Then hit apply.

We need one more thing to complete the setup: the local IP address of the remote machine (the Linux computer, in my case.) You can look it up by running a simple command. On Linux, you can run ip addr show. On Windows, run ipconfig. Take note of it.

There are some other features too, but this is all you need to send files back and forth between the two devices.

Connect to the FTP server and move files between computers

How to get the drag-and-drop system going

Let’s connect to the FTP server we just set up on the remote computer. Go back to the receiving computer (Windows, in my case) and open the FileZilla Client app.

Enter the local IP address (that you looked up on the other computer) where it says “Host.” The username will be the username you set on the FileZilla Server on the other computer. Then click Quickconnect. You can now drag-and-drop files between the local site and remote site panes.

Some troubleshooting tips

What to do if you get errors during setup

If you get any errors while FileZilla is establishing the connection or scanning the remote directory, it’s probably because of one of two reasons.

1. The built-in firewall on the remote computer is blocking port 21, which FTP uses by default.
2. “Require TLS” is enabled under the Server Listeners tab in the FileZilla Server configuration.

To fix it, you can add port 21 to the firewall allowlist and switch to the “Explicit TLS over insecure plain FTP” under the protocol settings in the Server Listeners tab.

7/10

Brand

Synology

CPU

Intel Celeron J4125

Memory

2GB DDR4 non-ECC

Drive Bays

4

The easiest way to share files locally

You now have a simple setup for transferring files that works just by dragging files and folders between two windows. As long as the target device can run an FTP server, FileZilla can get files off it.