WS_FTP
Overview
WS_FTP allows
you to easily transfer your web page files from your computer to your
web hosting account on our servers.
Contents:
How
to set up WS_FTP
Short explanation of the folders for your hosting account
Uploading
files
Changing permissions on files and folders
How
to set up WS_FTP:
Create a
connection entry for your website with the information you received in your
welcome email. If you no longer have the welcome email, the required
information for your hosting account (except your password) can be viewed on your hosting account
control panel in the upper left. You can create the entry using the IP
address for your website, as shown below, or by using ftp.yourdomain.com
if your domain name is active on our system. Type in the appropriate username
and password for your hosting account. Note that you can save your password by
checking the "Save Pwd" box - remember to change your password
here if you change your password via your hosting account control panel!
Once you've
entered that information, click the Startup tab. You can set the directory
where the program will start by default by entering that path in the "Initial
Remote Host Directory". Generally, you will want to set this to the
main folder for your website, which is /public_html, as shown below.
You can also set the directory where your web files are located on your pc
by specifying that directory in the "Initial Local Directory"
field, again, as shown below. Please note that the slash direction is
important when entering these paths.
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A
short explanation of the folders for your hosting account:
When you
FTP to your hosting account, or when you view a list of files and folders from
the File Manager on the hosting account control panel, you will see certain system-created
folders for your use. These folders should not be deleted when maintaining
your hosting account: public_html, www, tmp, etc,
mail, and cgi-bin. In addition, if you install FrontPage extensions
on your hosting account, the _vti* folders should be added to the list. Deleting
these folders could leave your website inaccessible until support can restore
them or recreate them.
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Uploading
files:
Uploading
files with WS_FTP is easy. From the left hand pane (your computer), select
the file you wish to upload. To select multiple files for upload, hold
down the CTRL key on your keyboard and click on each file you wish to
send. Once you have selected the files you wish to upload, click the arrow
that is pointing to your web hosting account, as shown below.
Important!
While many times, the upload method you choose will not affect the appearance
of those files, for some files, the file type is very important. The example
above shows that the index.html file, selected on the left, will be uploaded
as an ASCII (or plain text) file. Image files (.gif, .jpg, etc.) should
be uploaded as Binary only. If images are uploaded in ASCII format, they
may appear distorted - or they may not appear at all - when your web page
is viewed. When uploading CGI scripts in particular, it is imperative
that the instructions for that script are followed exactly. Failure to
upload in the manner directed by the instructions can result in your CGI
scripts not functioning properly.
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Changing
permissions on files and folders:
You may find
that you need to change the permissions on a folder or a series of files.
Many CGI scripts require certain settings for the files that the script
uses - for instance, the instructions may direct you to "chmod 755"
a file, or "change permissions to 755". WS_FTP makes setting
permissions easy.
Right click
on the file or folder whose permissions you wish to change, and select
chmod (UNIX). The following dialog box will then appear:
The numbers
indicated after a chmod command refer to values that are assigned to the
owner, group, and others. Each number represents the sum of the values
assigned to Read, Write, and Execute:
Read - 4
Write - 2
Execute - 1
Adding the
numbers for each column above gives you the setting. In our example, the
Owner is granted a permission of 7 (4+2+1), and both the group and others
are given a permission of 5 (4+1). After clicking OK, the appropriate
permissions will be assigned to the file. In our example, the file index.html
has been given a permission of 755.
To download
WS_FTP (Pro or LE), for more information, or for extensive support documentation
on WS_FTP, please visit http://www.ipswitch.com.
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