How to Use an FTP Client to Transfer Your Files

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. You're only likely to use an FTP program if you want to work on your own website, but if you do that, FTP is the primary way to upload the various files that go to make up your Web pages.

Most Web design programs include FTP uploading features right in the application, so you can design your page then tell the layout software to upload it for you. But if you ever needed to clear out old, outdated files from your site or upload something separately, then you'll need a proper FTP "client" program. Despite sounding like things only meant for advanced users, modern FTP client software is generally very easy to use. To make an FTP connection, first you'll need to know the address of the FTP server, normally something like ftp.MySite.com but sometimes a numeric "IP" address such as 123.234.345.456. You will also need your FTP username and password. Finally, you may need to know the "path" to the right part of the FTP server; this is the route from the top level of where you log in down into the right folder for your website. You may not be given one, which means either you don't need one or you'll need to spot the folder and double click it to get inside. In these cases the folder name you're looking for is likely to be something like "web" "www" "htdocs" or possibly your website's domain name.

There are many FTP client programs to choose from. Windows users should try CuteFTP, while Windows and Macintosh users alike can use CuteFTP Pro. On the Mac specific front, Transmit and Captain FTP are two FTP programs that are certainly worth considering. These all work in essentially the same simple way; connect, and you're shown the files and folders on the FTP server. From here you can either drag or drop files from the website to download to your computer, or from your computer to upload to the website. You can also perform maintenance tasks, such as deleting files by selecting them and clicking Delete. Finally, you can store your FTP connection details to make it easy to reconnect again.

Automated transfers, sometimes called synchronized or mirrored folders, mean that all you have to do to maintain your remote files is move things in and out of your synchronized local one. Choose a folder on your computer, choose the folder (also known as directory) on the remote FTP server to link it to, then just move things in and out of that folder. Your FTP software needs to be running to do this of course, but it will keep things in synch automatically.

Files and folders stored on an FTP server generally shouldn't have spaces in their names, certainly not if the files are meant for use in Web pages. For non Web files and for programs, it is generally a good idea to encode them into Zip archives before uploading them to an FTP server. As well as making sure that everything copies across without losing subtle settings, it also helps to keep file sizes down. And this makes the uploading and downloading process faster.