Basic FTP Guide

The easiest way to transfer files to your site is to use an FTP utility. Often, FTP clients are bundled with your Internet service provider (ISP) package. If not, you can download one from here. If you use windows, you may try to use WS_FTP. For Macintosh users, you may try Fetch

The basic elements required for FTP your files to your server are: an active Internet connection, your server login and password (this will be provided on your server configuration letter), and an FTP client.

Here are the simple steps you can take:

1.      How do I configure my FTP client?

·        Set your FTP client to connect to host: ftp.yourdomain.com

·        Set your user name to your loginID.

·        Set your password to your login password.

·        Connect to the FTP server. You should be presented with a list of the files in your home directory.

If you are using CuteFTP, remember to turn "local filtering" off**.

For Windows user  

Sample Image of a Fictitious Login Session.

Legend:

·        The domain name for this fictitious server is "alaskanpineapples.com".

·        The login name for this server is "alaskan".

·        The session name for this server is "Alaskan Pineapple Site" (You may name your session anything, such as "My Alaskan Pineapple Website FTP Session"

2For Macintosh Users using Fetch, launch a New FTP Session by selectiong "New Connection" (COMMAND-N) from the "FILE" pull-down menu.

Sample Image of a Fictitious FTP Session using Fetch 3.0.1

1.      When you login to your site, you will be at your home directory.

2.      To upload Home Pages, go to the www directory. Here you will find index.html. This is the default page that comes up when "http://www.yourname.com" is entered in a browser.

You may upload your Home Pages here, or into any directory under the www directory. Be sure you FTP all your Home Page files, as well as any text files such as cgi script source code in ASCII format! All image files need to be transfered in BINARY format.

3.      If you ftp a file called test.htm to the www directory, it will be accessed by the address http://www.yourname.com/test.htm

If you make a directory called "documents" below the htdocs directory, and ftp a file called info.html to that directory, it will be accessed by the address http://www.yourname.com/documents/info.html

4.      If you want to change the default page that comes up when you enter http://www.yourname.com. You can upload the file into the www directory, and rename it as index.html.

Those are the simple steps to ftp. If you have further questions, or comments, send us some email at support@webvisions.com.