FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It’s used, as you would expect with a name like that, to transfer files from one location to another. In our environment, that usually means transferring files from your home computer onto the web server, which stored your files in such a way that they are accessible over the internet.

This tutorial will take you through the ftp process from go to whoa, including:

• Setting up an ftp program, in our case CuteFTP (which is a popular program, and if you’re looking for an FTP program then small business web hosting recommend it as a good choice), so that you can connect to your web server
• Moving a HTML file from your computer onto the development server
• Viewing the file over the web to ensure that it’s online

• Setting up your ftp program

This tutorial makes use of a graphical FTP program, even though in fact you don’t need to use one. You can bring up an FTP prompt from the command line on your computer, but a graphical utility such as CuteFTP makes things a lot easier. For the sake of this tutorial, let’s assume I’ve just gone out and bought it.

Once you’ve purchased the program, install it, and you’ll be able to set up a new connection. On the sample program, you do it by clicking on the little magic wand arrow to bring up the following screen:

Select a name for your site, and click “Next” to bring up the next screen:

In this screen you’re asked for your first bit of technical information, the ftp address that you want to upload to. If you’re not sure what this is, simply call the friendly staff at small business web hosting and they’ll fill you in. Usually it’s the same as your website’s address with “ftp” instead of the “www” part in front of your domain name.

Now, click on “Next” when you’ve entered the ftp address, to bring up the next screen:

Here you’ll need to contact the staff at Small Business Web Hosting to get your username and password. Once you’ve got these, punch them in, and click on “Next” to bring up the next screen:

As I said at the start of the tutorial, FTP is all about transferring files from one location to another. In this screen you set the default folders that you want to transfer to, and transfer from. You will want to set the Default Local Folder to whatever directory you are developing your site. Set the remote folder to “/public_html/” (without the quotation marks)

Once you’ve done this, click on “Next” to bring up the next screen:

Well there you go, you’ve set it up! Now you’re ready to transfer your files to your web server…

• Moving a HTML file onto your web server

FTP can be used to transfer all types of files, pictures, text files, whole folders, anything.

Double click on the connection that you’ve just created, and you’ll see the files in your local directory on the left hand side, and the files on your web server on your right hand side. In order to move a file onto your web server, simply drag-and-drop from one your local side (ie the left) onto the web server side (ie the right). Make sure that you don’t drag it onto a folder though, otherwise your file will go into that folder, rather than the folder you want. If you want to put the file in a folder other than your default folder, navigate to that folder before you perform the drag-and-drop.

If you are overwriting files or folders, then cuteFTP will warn you that you are about to do so. If this is what you want to do, click on the “Yes to All” button, otherwise click “No”, and re-assess your actions. If you’re still not sure, call the friendly staff at Small Business Web Hosting and they’ll sort out any problems you may be having.

That’s it! You have now saved your files onto the web server.

• Test your files with a web browser

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