FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. You can use FTP software from
your desktop PC to upload and download files to your Virtual Server web
space. Windows 98, NT and 2000 come with a command line FTP program which,
unless you are experienced can be difficult to use. There are various
graphical FTP programs available such as WS_FTP and CuteFTP that you can
use to make things easier. The basic version of these programs is
free.
WS-FTP Setup
WS-FTP is a program that is used to manage
the construction of your web site. From here you can upload/download files
to and from your Virtual Server web space. Once it has been installed you
need to configure it, for the purposes of this example we are using WS-FTP
(you can download it from
here) but you can also use FTP software such as CuteFTP.
Once
you start WS-FTP you are greeted with a screen which is not considered
very helpful or user friendly to the newbie. However, this screen may look
complicated, but in fact it is very straight forward and simple once you
are used to it.
Profile Name is just the reference
name which WS-FTP remembers the profile by, this can really be anything
that you like.
Host Name /
Address is probably the single most important item on this
form, enter your domain name that you have with your account
(ftp.mydomain.co.uk). This is so WS-FTP can locate your virtual server on
the Internet.
Host Type is the
type of server that you are working with. All our servers are UNIX
based (Redhat 5.1) so this must be set to UNIX
(standard)
Username &
Password is the most obvious of details on the form, please
note that these details are case sensitive.
Once you have set-up
WS-FTP and clicked OK WS-FTP will display the directory structure
on your virtual server on the right hand side, and your local machine
directory structure on the left.
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Note: When you first
log-in with FTP your default directory on the Virtual Server will
not be the directory that you want to place your website in. You
will need to navigate up by two levels to the top level root of your
Virtual Server. You navigate up a level by clicking on the  green arrow symbol for the remote
system.
You will need to click on this twice to arrive at your Virtual
Servers root directory which will look like the following:
 You should place your public HTML files
and any CGI scripts in the "web" directory.
You can access your Virtual Servers access log files in the
"logs" directory. |
Now you can transfer files to and from your virtual server by dragging
files across or tagging files and using the arrow buttons in the FTP
window.
Please make sure that when you transfer HTML and CGI
script files that you select the ASCII mode, and when you transfer
Binary/Image files that you use the Binary mode.
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