Using FTP Prof. Wayne Pollock Hillsborough Community College Tampa, FL

What is WS_FTP LE? FTP Software for Windows This version is free for educational use Easy to use Newer versions at Alternative software you can use is FileZilla, at filezilla-project.orgfilezilla-project.org

What is FTP ? FTP is the abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol Used to copy files between computers You must have an FTP client on your computer (such as WS_FTP LE) The remote computer must be running an FTP Server Although still widely used, FTP is considered insecure (“scp” is secure but not widely used)

Using WS_FTP LE 1.Connect to the Internet 2.Start WS_FTP LE 3.Click the New button 4.Type the information as shown into the session properties window (figure 1) 5.Click the OK button

Figure 1 Your user ID (folder name) and password go here (don’t use values shown). See the feedback comments in the Web Site Concept project, for your info. Name of remote server

Understanding the connection screen After you log on, you will receive a screen similar to Figure 2 On the left side of Figure 2 are files on your hard drive (local) On the right side of Figure 2 are files on the remote computer (remote)

Figure 2 Files/folders on your computerFiles/folders on student server

Locate Your Web Site Folders On your computer (local), locate the files you want to transfer Double-click folders to open them; use the green up-arrow (“..” entry) to go back. In this example, files are in C:\Temp\WebSiteProject folder The results should look similar to Figure 3

Figure 3 Folder on your computer Files (and folders) to transfer Your folder on web server

Upload Your Web Site Click on a file once to select it You can select several files at once with control-click Make sure the “Binary” transfer mode is selected, then click once on the “  ” arrow to transfer the file or folder (If you transfer a sub-folder, a message displays asking if you want to transfer the entire folder. Answer Yes. Note that using sub-folders is discouraged!)

Upload Your Web Site (cont.) After clicking on the "  " arrow to begin your transfer, you will see the progress of the data being transferred at the bottom of the screen. When this process stops, your folder and all its files have been transferred The result should look like figures 4a-4b

Figure 4a Click file to select control-click for others Binary transfer mode Click to begin upload

Figure 4b Upload completed!

Updating Your Web Site Start FTP, enter your user ID (folder name) and password, and open your folders as before (see Figures 1 and 3) Click on images or other files on your computer (local) to select them Make sure the “Binary” transfer mode button is selected Click the “  ” to upload the file(s)

Updating Your Web Site (cont.) To modify a file that is already uploaded, just upload the modified copy and it will replace the original copy Download by selecting a file from the remote window and clicking the “  ” arrow. This file can then be modified and then uploaded again Always check your web site after modifying it by using your browser’s refresh (reload) button

Summary Upload just your files, not the folder containing your files The top (main) web page must always be named “index.htm” or the web server won’t find it Use URLs of just filenames (such as “foo.gif”) and not pathnames (such as “C:\Users\student\Desktop\folder\foo.gif”) Look in the feedback comments for the Web site Concept project for your FTP username and password Use the additional resources on our class web page

© by Wayne Pollock