FTP

Transferring your files to your website

• First, What is FTP? FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. When you use an ftp client to upload or download your files you are transferring the files from one place to another using a particular set of commands called protocols, hence, file transfer protocol. When using an ftp client installed on your computer you do not need to know the particular commands.

• What is an ftp client? An ftp client is a program or application that allows you to transfer your files through some sort of graphical user interface. Most of these clients will open up with two panes. The one on the left is generally the folder on your hard drive that you store your files in and the one on the right is the file system at your website. It will look much like Windows explorer or the Finder window in Mac OS. Both Fetch and Rbrowser lite only have one pane and that one is open to the web server only.

• Now that you know what ftp is and what an ftp client is, it is time to download one for your Operating system. Here is a list of them along with where to download them:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla (excellent FTP client and server applications - open source)
http://itusupport.gmu.edu/downloads/wsftp.asp (WSFTP LE - no longer supported by Ipswitch)
http://www.rbrowser.com/RBrowserLite/RBrowserLite.html (Free FTP client for OS X)
http://fetchsoftworks.com/ (Fetch - FTP program for the MAC - Version 3.03 is free)
http://www.wxftp.seul.org/ (AxY FTP - GUI FTP Client for Linux)(was wxftp)
http://www.javaarchives.com/ftp.html (FTP Clients written in Java - cross platform)
http://www.macosarchives.com/ftp_and_archie.html (Several FTP clients for Mac)
http://www.winarchives.com/workstation/ftp.html (Several FTP clients for Windows)
http://www.ftpplanet.com (Everything you need to know about file transfers)
http://www.ipswitch.com (WSFTP pro - Windows )
http://www.globalscape.com/cuteftp (Cute FTP - FTP program)
http://www.transloader.com (web powered file transfers to your website – works with webtv)
http://www.megz-bytes.net/transloader.html (transloader powered by transloader.com )

• The first thing that you have to do is to set up the ftp client to access your website. You need three things for that, your host name, your user name, and your password. When you start your ftp client for the first time it will ask for those things. The host name will be ftp.yourwebsitename.domain (like ftp.microsoft.com). Your user name and password is given to you by your host provider. Enter those values and then connect to your site while you are online. You should also be able to save this site and login as a favorite or shortcut at this time.

• If your client has two panes, you should see your website files on the right and your hard drive files on your left. Change the left pane to the folder that contains the files for your website. If your client has one pane, you will only see the website files. If you do not see your website files at this time try using “passive” mode. This usually happens if you are running a firewall on your computer.

• When transferring files use the automatic settings until you get to know what you can send using text or ascii and binary transfer modes.

• To transfer files from your computer to your website, click on the file (in the left pane) that you want to send to the website and then click on the arrow to transfer it to the right pane (your website) or, if you have one pane click on “put” and chose the file that you want to put up to the website.

• To transfer a file from your website to your computer, so that you can edit it, click on the file that you want to edit in the right pane and then click on the arrow pointing to the left to transfer it to the folder that you want to put it in. If you have only a pane for the website, click on the file to highlight it and then click on “get”, then choose where you want to save the file.

• Besides transferring files to and from the website and your computer, you can also create folders and delete files and folders on your website. You can also move files from one folder to another (be careful so that you don't break any internal links) and even rename files and folders (again be careful so that you don't break any internal links).

• Ftp clients usually have some other features built in such as: multiple file transfer; the auto re-get or resuming feature; a queuing utility; a scheduling feature; an FTP find utility; a synchronize utility; and for the advanced user, a scripting utility.

• To learn more about ftp go to ftpplanet.com and read more about it there.