Ok, I’ll try (I don’t have the device to hand at the moment);
in the web-config for the MBWE I went into ‘Advanced’, then ‘Network’, then made sure that FTP was enabled. I think I would have set up a user (username & password, access rights to all folders) rather than allowing anonymous connections.
My MBWE has a fixed IP address but even if you are using DHCP I think you can get the device’s IP address from the ‘Network’, ‘LAN’ menu option.
I use Transmit on the Mac, but any FTP client will do the job on any platform. When I’m using Windows I can get by using the built-in command line program (will briefly post details below).
Simply enter the MBWE’s IP address into the ‘host’ section of your FTP client, enter your username and password, and make sure the transfer mode (if an available option) is set to ‘binary’ or ‘automatic’ (binary probably best).
You can then transfer files to and from the MBWE and in my experience this is considerably faster than transfer via the Samba/Bonjour/whatever file sharing over the network. (Not sure why, but it certainly seems to be!)
It’s a bit beyond the scope of this to explain using an FTP client to you but if that’s what you need help with, let me know what platform you’re on and I’ll try.
If you’re running Windows, then start a command prompt and type
FTP 192.168.1.199 (return) [replace 192.168.1.199 with the current IP address of your MBWE]
enter your username and password when prompted
now type
BIN (return) [this sets the transfers into binary mode]
now you can change directory on the FTP server using CD, send files to the server using PUT and copy files down from the server using GET
eg PUT myfile.zip to put the local file ‘myfile.zip’ into the current directory on the FTP server
use DIR (return) to list the files in the current directory on the FTP server
use BYE (return) to exit the FTP server and return to the normal Windows command prompt.
Unless you will be using this on a very occasional basis, I’d recommend getting hold of a graphical FTP client to make this easier - you can find free ones for Windows, Mac and (naturally) Ubuntu, etc. I can personally recommend both Fetch and Transmit on the Mac (though they’re both paid-for solutions).
You can go back into the MBWE configuration and disable the FTP service when you’re not using, if you are worried about security. My MBWE isn’t connected to the internet and lives behind my firewall, so I leave the FTP service running all of the time.
Good luck, and if you need more help please let me know what platform you’re using and (to make the examples easier) what local IP address your device has.