1. To match with what less computer literate people are familiar with perhaps
"change filespec" in both local and remote file listing popups/menus should be
changed to "file filter".

2. Modify the filter code to not hide the .. [parent] directory, nor any other
directory entries.

3. Modify the code to put an highlighted or off-colour background behind a
filtered directory listing: to visually inform the user that a filter is in place.

4. In the dialog, show to mutually selected items:
  [  ] show all files (*)
  [./] _last_non_*_entry_

5. Allow a click on the [All Files] or [*fred*] title to change the filespec.
6. List the title info as [protocol] host [filter] and lose the trailing *: I no
not what this signifies !

Other information:
Reasoning for 2: You may be looking for a file that matches eg *how*, but be
unsure which folder on an remote/local machine it resides. The current filtering
hides both the .. and other directories, meaning the user can not browse to
other directories at all (they dont exist in the list - you could type them in -
but that defeats the purpose of a UI, and doesn't help if you don't know the
folder names already.