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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Hosting 
