Learning to use FTP to access your site's files

FTP is designed to allow a user to send and receive files from/to a server quickly and effectively. In order to use it, you'll need to first create an FTP account on your server and then use a program like Filezilla on the PC or Cyberduck/Transmit on the Mac.

Get your Account Info

 

Most hosting plans will allow you to have at least one FTP account. You might be able to create additional ones to make it easier for clients to drop files into your server. FTP is usually used to transfer large files or when you need to transfer a lot of files at once. It's also the primary way you'll update your websites.

Using the 1&1 control panel you can click on either the text shortcut at the top or the FTP account icon in the basic settings.

 

Get the Username

 

When you get to your FTP account info window, you should already see a user that starts with the letter u and a number. You can use this username along with the password you used to log into your account as your standard FTP account. you can also create a new one by hitting the New User button at the top of the screen.

 

Creating a new user

 

If you want to create a different user, click on the New User window. You'll be taken to this window where you can choose a username (your username will always have the name with the u plus a number, a dash and the username you want to create. You'll also need to provide a password. The description is optional.

Finally, you'll have the option of linking this FTP account to a current directory or to create a new directory. A directory is a folder, so if you want your clients to have access only to a specific folder, it's a good idea to give them just access to that folder. If you haven't already created a folder you can use the Create new directory option to create one here.

If you plan to have multiple websites on the same account you can also create an FTP client for each website. That way different site managers can have access to the different site folders without being able to mess up other sites.

 

Setting up your client

 

There are many different clients you can use to upload and download files from your server. On the Mac side, I like Transmit the best. It's the most feature-full and stable FTP program. If you're looking for something free, you can try Cyberduck. It's a pretty solid alternative, although not as clean as Transmit. On the PC side, you can try FileZilla, which is a pretty decent and free alternative.

You'll need to know three basic things to use an FTP client. They will all ask for the same thing but they will 1. be in different places, 2. might be known as slightly different names. All of them will also allow you to either temporarily connect to a host or create a shortcut if you want to log in to an FTP host regularly. Tiy will need your host name, which most of the time is your domain name. So, for this site, my host name is planetoftheweb.com. You will also need your username and password. To create a shortcut, it will sometimes ask you for a label.

 

Connect on a Mac using Transmit

 

1. At the top of the transmit screen, you'll see two different tabs. the Favorites Tabs and the Connect tab. If you want to connect to a site without creating a favorite (or shortcut), then click on the connect tab.

2. Type in your User Name in this section. You should get this from your control panel.
3,4 Type in your username and password. You should get this from your control panel.
5. The Initial Path is an optional field that you can use to go directly to a folder in your host. So if you created a folder called client, you can type that in here and when you log in, it will take you directly to a folder. This is useful for when you create shortcuts that take you directly to folders that you'll use often to upload files to.
6. Protocol. FTP is the default protocol, but there are others. You can try sFTP if your server supports it which is a more secure version of FTP. Your server might require other protocols.

 

Creating a Shortcut using Transmit

 

Shortcuts in Transmit are called Favorites. To create one, click on the favorites tab at the top of the screen (1), then click on the plus button at the bottom of the screen.

 

Edit Your Shortcut

 

To create a favorite, you'll need to name your favorite (1), then put in your host name, which in Transmit is called Server (2). Your username (3) and password (4). If you click on the more options, you'll be able to also choose your remote path.

 

Connect on a PC using FIleZilla

 

To make a quick connection to your server using FileZilla, you simply type in your hostname, username and password at the top of the screen, then hit the quickconnect button. You'll notice two panes that have (5) your local hard drive and (6) your host's hard drives. You can drag and drop files from the left local hard drive pane to your host's pane. You can also drang and drop files from your desktop to your host.

 

Creating a shortcut with FileZilla

 

To create a shortcut so you won't have to type in your information all of the time with FileZilla, go to the FILE menu and choose SITE MANAGER.

Hit the NEW SITE button (2) and under the My Sites section (3) at the top of the window, type in a label for your shortcut. On the right side of the window, type in your host name, then switch the Logontype from Anonymous to Normal (Anonymous FTP allow you to log on to sites that let people in without a username and password).

Finally, type in your username and password. (6), (7). Notice that FileZilla doesn't allow you to create a shortcut to a specific folder...to do that, you'll have to go the Advanced tab and type something under the default remote directory.

To access your shortcut in the future you can go to the FILE manager or choose the site from teh quickconnect popup at the top of the main window.

 

Testing your uploads

 

When you upload a file to your FTP host, it should be accessible on your web browser as soon as it finished uploading. Some web hosts require you to place web accessible files in a special folder...often called httpdocs. Be careful not to confuse this with httpsdocs, which some servers also have. httpsdocs is for secure web files. If you see both of these folders, your files should go in the httpdocs folder. Also, make sure that you make your FTP program go directly into the httpdocs folder.

1&1 has none of this, so your files should go directly into a web accessible folder. If you've uploaded a file to your host at neimultimedia.com called picture.jpg, you should be able to type in http://neimultimedia.com/picture.jpg into your browser and see the file. If you've placed the file in a folder on the server called images, then the URL to the file would be http://neimultimedia.com/images/picture.jpg