There are various tools that will publish your website for you (e.g. Adobe® Dreamweaver), once you’ve built it, but without a basic understanding of what it’s doing for you, you risk running into problems you won’t know how to solve.

So, assuming you already know what server, FTP and Hosting mean (and a few other terms), the next thing you’ll need to know is the domain name (or I.P. address), username and password that you setup for your server. No matter what FTP client you use, you’ll be prompted to enter this data.

Next, you’ll need an FTP client (naturally). There are a lot of these out there, many of which are free. For instance, IE (cringe) will work (although not the safest FTP client—it keeps “the door” [portol] open at all time, allowing “hackers” to come in and mess with your site). A better FTP client for Windows (and other systems) is FileZilla (also free). FileZilla is also Mac friendly, but I use Cyberduck on my Mac.

Once you’ve got your FTP client established, open a “new connection.” This option will most likely be under File and might be refered to in another way, like “new FTP” or “open connection.” This is where all that username-data comes in handy as here is where you will need to enter it. Some of the fields are very self explanatory. In most cases, the fields that aren’t can just be left alone (otherwise you’ll have to contact your hosting service provider to find out what to put in them). Make sure you’ve at least entered the server you’re trying to connect to (www.domain.com) the username and the password. Once you’re done click Connect (or in some cases Continue, Proceed, whatever button progresses onward). You should now be logged into your server. If not, make sure your data is correct and in the proper feilds. If you’re sure it is and it’s still not working, contact your hosting service provider for support.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the files and directories on the server. (This doesn’t mean all the files on the server—except in some rare cases—just all the files in a particular directory on the server that you have rights to.) With some FTP clients (such as Cyberduck) you can simply drag and drop files from your local computer to the server to upload them (and the reverse to download). Others, will have two windows. One window shows you the files on the server, and the other shows the local files on your computer. Here you must navigate to the file you wish to upload and click on a button (usually an arrow such as this one >), which copies the files over to the server (or uploads them). (To download, find the file you want on the server and use the other arrow to copy it to your local computer, making sure ahead of time that it’s pointing to the directory you want the file to download into.) Do this with all your web content—all at once or one at a time—and your website will now show up when you punch the associated domain name into any browser (as long as your content is done correctly).

As for IE (if you really want to use it as your FTP client), simply type "ftp://www.yourdomain.com" and you’ll be prompted for the username and password. Submit, and you’re logged in. You can start dragging and dropping.

Your hosting service (if you’re renting server space) may also have an FTP client available to you on their website, which would be available when you log into your account.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 2:31 am and is filed under Q&A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.