In the web world, sometimes you need to transfer files from your computer to your hosting provider’s servers. Maybe you want to install a new application, maybe you need to replace an image, or maybe you’re designing your own site in something like Frontpage and need to upload your changes. That’s where FTP comes into play.
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and it is simply a way of transferring files from one computer to another. A popular, free FTP client is FileZilla. This guide will walk you through downloading and installing FileZilla, and will walk you through the highlights of the interface.
Downloading / Installing
First, head over to http://www.filezilla-project.org. From there, you want to download the FileZilla Client.
Then, click the download link for your operating system.
From there, you’ll likely have the option to Run the program. Please do so, and proceed through the installation. The defaults should work fine, so just hit Next until you’re done!
After installation has completed, you’ll want to run FileZilla, and you’ll see the program, which looks like this:
Setting Up A Site
In order to get going, we need to set up a remote site for FileZilla to connect to. To set up a site, you’ll need the servername, username, and password from your hosting provider.
First, click on the Site Manager button in the toolbar:
You’ll see the Site Manager screen:
Click on New Site:
Now you’ll be able to enter your sername, username, and password to the right. Under most circumstances you’ll want to set Logontype to “Normal”:
Click Connect:
You’ll see a bunch of junk show up at the top. These are FTP commands that FileZilla is sending to the server and ther server’s response. If connection fails, you should see an error message explaining why. If connection succeeds, you should see “Directory Listing Successful” as shown here:
Getting Around The Interface
The interface is divided into three main sections you’ll use often. The left pane lets your browse through the files and directories on your computer. The right pane shows you the files and directories on the server. At the bottom, there is a pane which shows the Queue, which has tabs for uploads in progress and successful transfers.
Transferring Files
Transferring files is as easy as drag and drop. You find the file you want to send to the server on the left pane (your computer), navigate to where you want to place it on the right pane (the server), then just drag the file/directory from the left pane to the right pane. Once you do so, you’ll see the file and its transfer progress in the queue at the bottom.
The same concept works in reverse. If you need something from the server on your computer, you can drag files/directories from the right pane (the server) to the left pane (your computer).
Summary
That’s really all there is to FTP — it’s as easy as drag and drop once set up. If you have any questions or if I left something out, let us know in the comments! If there are other how-to type articles you’d like to see, let us know that as well!
###
For more articles like this, check us out at http://www.thosegeeks.com
Also, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thosegeeks
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment below or subscribing to the feed so others know you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE
BECOME A FAN ON
FOLLOW US ON
