Nautilus as an FTP Browser

Nautilus works as an operational FTP browser. You can use the text-based location bar or choose File Open Location to access any FTP site. Just enter the URL for the FTP site in the Location box and press enter (you do not need to specify ftp://). Folders on the FTP site will be displayed, and you can drag files to a local directory to download them. The first time you connect to a site, an Authentication dialog will open letting you select either Anonymous access or access as a User. If you select User, you can then enter your username and password for that site. You can then choose to remember the password for just this session or permanently store it in a keyring.

Once you have accessed the site, you can navigate through the folders as you would with any Nautilus folder, opening directories or returning to parent directories. To download a file, just drag it from the FTP window to a local directory window. A small dialog will appear showing download progress. To upload a file, just drag it from your local folder to the window for the open FTP directory. Your file will be uploaded to that FTP site (if you have permission to do so). You can also delete files on the site’s directories.