What is FileZilla and how do you use it to trasnfer files from a site to your computer?

 In the last post I described moving an ASP.NET website contents from one hosting provider to another. However the described process copied content on a site from one provider to a site on another provider.

What if you don't have a new provider? Let us say, you want all the content from an existing site to your hard drive.  In this case FileZilla comes in very handy.

FileZilla is a free FTP solution which provides both an FTP Client (allowing downloading your site content) and FTP server (you can upload files to a site) and is supported by a forum and its users.
You can download FileZilla from here:

https://filezilla-project.org/

You need to download the file from this site shown here:

Wait, do not click on the big green button. It will also allow you to download FileZilla, but it will bring in extra bundled stuff you may not need. When you scroll down you will see more options and there choose to download the one shown here:

If you want both client and server, you can get them by clicking both the buttons, one at a time. I got only the client program as I want to download from my website. Once you start the FileZilla_3.7.4.1_win32-setup program it is pretty much wizard driven. Follow the steps including this one here:

Once the installation is complete you will be seeing this:

Lots of stuff to do in the above screen using links. I just clicked OK after briefly looking over it.

Now you can start your transfer from site to hard disk. Double click the FileZilla short cut on your desktop to display the user interface as shown.

You need to fill in the details of the website you are downloading from and of course you need the authentication details. The Port can be blank or 21 be default. Click on the QucikConnect button.
The program establishes  connection to the website and brings in the root folder of the site to the right hand pane as shown. The left hand pane shows the computer drives and folders as shown.

As soon as the connection is established you can see all the files/folders on your site populating the right hand site as shown (only the root is shown and it can be expanded).

All that is needed is to create a folder on the computer (In C:\drive in this case) and right click the root folder and click Download from the list as shown.

The files from righthad side gets trasnferred to the left side and you will be seeing the activities in the pane above. The downloaded files are shown progrssively transferred as shown the bottom pane. It also shows the files that missed for some reason, you can go over later adn get those files as well if necessary. It will show all the files downloaded.

That's all there is to it.

Mahalo

How do you copy an ASP.NET website on one Hosting company to a site on another?

Sometimes you change your website hosting from one vendor to another. You want to transfer your site content from the old hosting provider to the new hosting provider. The general idea is the same but in this case we are considering moving from one ASP.NET hosting provider to another.

Domain Name:
First of all there is a consideration of domain name. You can buy a new domain name or you can use your existing domain name. In this case we are assuming that the existing domain name will be used and only the site content is moved.

Steps in moving to another:
1. Do not close the account with your old hosting provider as this may result in the loss of your content

2. Buy a new hosting account with the new hosting provider. If you are looking for a ASP.NET hosting you should choose one that hosts ASP.NET

http://www.findbestwebhosting.com/top10hostingcompanies.aspx/windows-web-hosting/1

Note: The above site was picked at random and the blogger has no interest in the above or any of the others that may get mentioned.

3. After you opened the account you will can get a temporary website (also an FTP site, email, etc. )Create your password for the various items (email, FTP, HTTP, etc.).

4. Download and install the free version of Visual Studio 2013 Express for Web (in this case Microsoft Visual Studio Express  2013 for Web). With this tool you can FTP your site content from the site on your old Hosting Provider to the temporary ftp site on the new hosting provider. The transfer itself may take considerble time depending on the amount of stored content.

• After launching VS 2013 Express, clicking on File | Open Web Site... opens the following display.

• Enter the ftp site of the previous hostings provider and enter your credentials.

The site contents will be displayed in the Solutions Explorer
Now the WEBSITE menu item gets displayed.

• Click on WEBSITE and click Copy Web Site... as shown.

The FTP screen opens as shown.

• In the above screen click on Connect, the connect to remote site is activated and the Open Web Site window is displayed again. Now enter the ftp site and credentials for the new hostings provider.

Both the source and target gets displayed as shown.

 

 

• All that remains is highlight the items from your old site on the left(Source) to the target site using the arrows (watch directions) in between source and target.

The time it takes to transfer will depend on many factors that includes the network connectivity and the amount of data.

You may be wondering whether the new site created from the previous hostings site will function as it did earlier. This will depend on a lot of factors as the technology might have progressed and the elements (databases,user accounts, transacted items etc) may not be compatible versions. However you may be able to recreate most if not all of the features. Patience.

Before you make the ftp transfer you should have username and password for the old hosting account and the new recently purchased hosting account.

Also make sure,

• You can ping both sites
• Run tracert from the command window for the new hosting provider to make sure their router can be reached.
• Make sure telnet is enabled in your computer.