First What Does FTP Mean?

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol.

Why Do I Need FTP?

FTP is used for transferring website pages or other files uploaded onto your web host from your computer. An FTP program is an Internet tool / piece of software which allows you to transfer files between your computer and another server - this is typically the server that your website is hosted on.

This is very similar to transferring files on your computer to one folder from another, apart from your transferring from your computer to the computer of your web host, to do this you need some special software. At HowToWebsite we use an FTP program.

Click here to view a on how to upload your website using FTP with a great piece of free FTP software

Technorati Tags: FTP, File Transfer, Website Upload

Show me How To Upload Using FTP

Ok i have received a few queries from subscribers along the lines of “how do i upload my website” so i thought i would produce a tutorial to help.

In this tutorial i will show you how to upload your website using ftp which will involve obtaining a piece of software, installing the software and configuring it successfully.

Right let’s go … how to publish my website

1. Firstly you need to download a piece of FTP software called FileZilla.

Click the link : www.filezilla-project.org

2. On this page click the button highlighted in red : -

3. The next page displays the latest versions of FileZilla. The most common platform is Windows (FileZilla_3.2.0_win32-setup.exe (recommended)). Go ahead and select the appropriate platform.

Click the link

 4. Click ‘Yes‘ if a security alert appears and carry out the next step by clicking on the tab and selecting “Download File“ : -

Download File

5. Click ‘Yes‘ again (if asked) and select “Save” : -

6. And choose a location to save the download to either on the left hand side or by selecting the down arrow to view more possible locations. Click “Save” again to begin the download, and wait for the download to successfully complete. 

7. As soon as it has download successfully select “Run” and select “Run” again (if asked)

8. Follow the installation process through selecting : - I Agree > Next .. wait for download to complete > Ensure Start FileZilla is ticked and select “Finish“.

9. You will now see the program start up. Select File > Site Manager : -

Select FTP Site Manager

10. Select “New Site” as shown below as give your website connection a name e.g “howtowebsite.co.uk” : -

Select New FTP Site

11. When you purchased / registered your web host you would have received a confirmation email with some FTP account information contained, if you did not receive this email log into your hosting account, you can retrieve this information from there, you are now ready to use this information - a typical email containing this information will look bit like this : -

FTP Account Information

 12. You need to take out the following information : - Host, User name and Password. Firstly enter your Host in the box provided, and then select “Normal” from the LogonType drop down : -

13. Following this proceed to enter your User name and Password and click “Connect“.

You should receive a ‘Status : Directory Listing Successful’ confirmation message, this means you have successfully connect to your web host, see below for the message you should receive : -

As you will see you now have two sections, on the left hand side is a list of all the files on your hard drive (computer). On the right hand side is a list of the directories on your server.

14. On the left hand side as show below navigate to your website file and open the folder in which these files are stored : -

15. So now you have all of your website file stored on your computer open. Next you have to navigate to the correct directory on your server. You will notice on the right hand side there are a list of folders. Most commonly there will be a folder called “public_html” - Double click on this folder to open it, inside this folder you will find files such as ‘index.html’ cgi-bin etc, this is the folder that you need to upload your website files (from your computer) to. After ensuring you are in the correct directories on both your computer and server. Click on one of your files on the left hand side and hold down “CTRL” (on your keyboard and press ‘A‘ (on your keyboard), alternatively highlight all of the files - either way you should ensure that all files within your website root folder have been highlighted as shown below  : -

16. Finally, right click all of the highlighted files and select ‘Upload‘ and simply wait for your file to transfer from your computer to your web server.

You will notice a succession of the following message, this means that each file has uploaded to your website server : -

You may want to open your website in a web browser to ensure the transfer process has been successful.

I hope this tutorial guide has been useful, please comment on this tutorial below, much appreciated.

Technorati Tags: FTP, File Transfer, Website