One day I went out of the town and my friend said on phone that my website is not opening. Immediately, I found out a Cybercafe so that i can check out the problem. Then after searching for the reason I realized that there is a coding problem in my theme folder (header.php). But there was no FTP client installed in that machine.
I requested the owner of the cafe that I want to install FileZilla. But he refused. Even, when I tried to install the FTP client I found that I’ve no privilege to install any application in that computer. So there was no way to repair my website which resulted in the website going down for the whole day. I returned home after a day and made amends in my theme folder.
But one day I found an interesting feature in my Windows explorer address bar. As you all know that if you type any url in the explorer address bar it will open. It may be the url is of the local or web address. Suddenly a trick came into my mind and I typed in my FTP address at the explorer address bar. Voila! It asked me to give my ftp user name and password. After putting the necessary requirements I successfully logged into my ftp server. That’s all. Do you know about this feature of Windows? If no, follow the instructions below.
How to use the Windows explorer as your FTP client
1. Open My Computer or any Windows explorer Window.
2. Type your FTP server address at the explorer address bar and hit enter.
The ftp address should generally be ftp://yourdomainname.
3. A window will pop up asking you to input the user name and password for the FTP account.
4. Just type them where required and click on the “Log on” button.
You will immediately see all the files and directories of your server. Now upload or download the files or directory as usual. You can also use the keyboard shortcut to copy or cut the files from the server and vice versa.
Why do generally people use FTP replacing the inbuilt FTP client of Windows
1. The FTP client can manage your transfers. Suppose your internet connection has been disconnected suddenly when the transfer in progress. The FTP clients like FileZilla remembers the files that are yet to be transferred. So when the connection is resumed you can transfer the remaining files.
2. FTP clients transfer files with high level of security. One can’t see the file location in your server without your username and password. But if you use the Windows explorer as FTP then it remembers the navigation history and in case you forget to clear the history then any one can see your file location in server from the navigation history.
Inspite of all the above drawbacks of Windows FTP I use FileZilla since the tricks assured me that I’ll never repend due to the problems discussed earlier.
Nice share :) i have bookmarked it.Thankfully this solved your problem.
In addition to that, you can also mount a network drive in Windows and access the files of your website. One problems , you wont be able to grant access to users with special permissions. You will have to use the browser for Special users.
If you want a full featured app for accessing your website’s files through Windows Explorer, try Gladinet.
@Amit: Yes you are right that Gladinet a nice tool to keep the cloud with you. But never used. Thanks for sharing.
Nice share. Yeah, sometimes we don’t have any FTP client on public/share computer. Thanks..
Gojeg: If you are very passionate about your blog then you may need this any where in your way. However thanks for commenting.