JWG Website Tutorials:
FTP Guide
*Please read my site structure tutorial first, so that you can set up your site properly from the start*
If you have just signed up for a website, (see my hosting guide if you need any help with this), you will probably want to upload your files using an ftp client. There are many other good ftp clients available, (not many good, free ones now, alas), but the one I often use is AceFTP , and I have prepared a little tutorial to help you get this client set up. (If you know of other good, free ftp clients out there, please feel free to add them to the above section in the JWG Directory).
Open up AceFTP and go to File, and click on Connect:
This will open up a new "Site Profiles" window, and in the left pane, double click on "New Site Profile" :
The New Site Profile Wizard will open, and you need to enter your ftp details here as given to you by your webhosts:
When you have done this and clicked Finish, the new site details you have just entered will appear underneath "New Site Profile". Right click on your sitename, and click on Properties at the bottom of the menu that appears:
A new window containing your new site's properties will open. Click on the Connection tab:
Look down the list until you see "Use passive mode" and put a tick in the box you see there. This will open up another box underneath that says "Enabled". If you know your host uses passive mode, put a tick in this box. If you are not sure whether your host uses active or passive mode, do NOT tick this box and click apply and ok. This window will then close, and you can right click on your site name again, and this time click "Connect".
If AceFTP successfully connects to your host, then you know that they use active mode. If it appears to connect, but then the files don't appear in the right pane of the main window, then you know that your host uses passive mode, and you will need to repeat all the previous steps from File:Connect,and then put the tick into "Enabled" underneath "Use passive mode", and click apply and ok. Right click on your site again, click Connect, and you should then be able to successfully connect to your host.
You only have to go through all this stuff when you initially set up a site. The next time you want to upload, just open up Ace, and underneath File you will see a computer graphic with a green arrow pointing to the words ftp. If you click on the little black arrow next to the computer, a drop down menu appears with the names of all the sites you have set up in AceFTP. Just click on the site name to connect to your host:
When you successfully connect, the next screenshot (8) shows what you will see:
Your files on your computer are shown in the left pane, and those on your website, in the right pane.
If we split the sections up we can see a little more detail:
Screenshot 9 shows the panel at the top that tells you if you have connected, and what is happening when you are uploading or downloading files:
This shows the left pane which houses your site on your computer. You can also browse from here using the folders at the top of the pane,to any other files on your computer, or local network if you have one:
This shows the right pane which when you initially connect shows all the directories on your website.
It doesnt do this with all webhosts, sometimes you just connect to your documents directory straightaway (in this
case httpdocs). So you would then double click on the httpdocs folder, and your website will files appear:
You will notice the little blue arrows pointing both left and right.
The simplest way of uploading files or directories (folders) is to highlight them, and then click on the left arrow to upload to your site.
You can repeat the procedure in reverse too, by highlighting files on your website and clicking the right arrow to download them to your computer.
AceFTP can be customised to suit your personal preferences by going to Tools on the Menu bar and clicking on General Preferences:
This brings up an Options Dialog box, and you can go through each of the options in turn changing them to suit:
If you dont understand what some of the options are, just click on help at the bottom right of the dialog box:
This brings up the Help dialog box and you can obtain help on any aspects of the program:
So that's about it really......Happy ftping!
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