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/.
WS_FTP LE support and documentation can be found at http://www.ipswitch.com/support/ws_ftp_le_support.html.
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