I Need Help With FTP (???)

[Bizza]

Hi gang,
I've got a question regarding FTP.
I know what it means but I don't understand the concept (what is it used for on a site for example)?
I use cPanel on my hosting and from this wonderful panel, I chose a webhosting template which tells me that I can edit the texts and page using FTP access!!! Now ... I went to my FTP Admin area and it just shows me stuff like quota, access etc... but how do I get into my admin for redeveloping my sites pages?
Reps will be added... thanks in advance gang!

 

[cx409]

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a protocol for transferring files (possibly) securely over the Internet.

With an FTP client, you can login to the actual "computer" where the website files are stored, as if you sat at the computer (except all you can see is the file structure). You can use your client to download the source code to your computer, edit it and "put" it back (upload).

Quota: How big your FTP space is.
Access: Probably your username and password.

Here are some really good (and free) FTP clients:
- SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com
- CoreFTP: http://www.coreftp.com

...And if you think you can get the hang of this easily (shouldn't be TOO hard):
- WinSCP: http://www.winscp.net

 

[Bizza]

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a protocol for transferring files (possibly) securely over the Internet.

With an FTP client, you can login to the actual "computer" where the website files are stored, as if you sat at the computer (except all you can see is the file structure). You can use your client to download the source code to your computer, edit it and "put" it back (upload).

Quota: How big your FTP space is.
Access: Probably your username and password.

Here are some really good (and free) FTP clients:
- SmartFTP: http://www.smartftp.com
- CoreFTP: http://www.coreftp.com

...And if you think you can get the hang of this easily (shouldn't be TOO hard):
- WinSCP: http://www.winscp.net

Thanks mate!
I still don't understand where to go to access my login ???
Isn't there a username and password entry area?
I use cPanel... could you tell me how to access the "client" first, then how I edit the webpages (what program does the "client" use to edit the pages?).

Cheers!
Bizza

 

[Jim_]

FTP does not edit files. It allows you to transfer them to your computer and back to the server.

Just download and install an ftp client and use it to log into your server. Normally, you'll need to enter the address, username, and password. The port will almost always be 21.

Once you're logged in, you can browse the files and folders on your site.
Find the files you want to edit. Transfer them to your computer.
Edit them. (If they're web pages, you'll most likely want to use a WYSIWYG html editor like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, but Notepad works too)
Then, transfer them back to the server.

 

[Bizza]

So a client FTP account needs to be opened?
I use cPanel ... and I think I've got an FTP file manager in there with all the access details. Is this where I go?

 

[yeppers]

So a client FTP account needs to be opened?
I use cPanel ... and I think I've got an FTP file manager in there with all the access details. Is this where I go?

There should already be an "ftp client account" setup on your website account, by default the username and password is just the same as your CPanel username and password

Well more specifically, here's the basics of ftp...

FTP is just a quick way to transfer files from your computer to another (in this case your sever)... To transfer these files, you need a program on your computer called an ftp client (there are many, they are free). I reccommend you download one called smartFTP ( http://smartftp.com/ ) and install it on your computer.

Then open it up, type in your domain name, username and password (username and password will be the same as your cpanel one usually), and it will log you into your website account, showing you all the files located inside it.

From there you will now see that you can drag and drop files from your own computer into your website's account, and vise versa

So go to http://www.smartftp.com/ and download the freeware program, install it, run it, and then you'll probably see what its all about

 

[Marcvs]

a good mac ftp client is fetch

http://fetchsoftworks.com

or captain ftp

or transmit

these are the three best for mac

 

[Darkneoboi]

I think the best FTP software you could use is FileZilla. I find that it works the best for me and is the fastest one I have used.

 

[Marcvs]

but filezilla is windows only

 

[Dan]

When you download the FTP client, there will be input boxes (somewhere) where you need to put where to connect to.

The host is your domain, the same as the cpanel except without /cpanel.
Username is the username you use to login to cpanel and the password is the same, too.

 

[Marcvs]

yeah but username is in form of:

[email protected]