This tutorial was written on January 27th 2003 and © by Lady Oz. You may make a copy of this tutorial or print it out for your own personal use ONLY. Do not send through emails nor put on your own site, but if you would like to LINK to my tutorials please do so. I only ask that you leave this tutorial on my site, where it belongs. *s*.
I put together this tutorial today as I have just helped someone load up her files to her site as she had no idea how to do it and a bit nervous on trying it on her own. I always say that you can't learn much if you don't have hands on experience and so I did screen captures of the steps I took to upload these files, which would help her in the future. I then decided to make it into a 'Mini tutorial' for the Cafe PSP group of which I am a proud member and also a moderator. Several people have advised me to make it available to the rest of the web as it just may help those who have yet to take this step into creating their own site. Anyway, hopefully it will prove to them that it is so easy to do and nothing to worry about. *s*
Now you may ask, 'Just what does FTP mean? Well it stands for File Transfer Protocol...and is used to transfer files from your hard drive to another site on the internet....this transaction is called 'uploading'....and it is called 'downloading' when you transfer files from another site to your own computer. Anyone who has a website uses ftp in one way or another. You can get yourself small program to do this, such as, Cute FTP which offers a 30 day trial...or you can get a Free FTP program by doing a search on the Internet...these are great programs and ideal if your server and browser do not support the ftp browser method. *s*
Another other way to transfer files to your site is through the Browser...which is the one that you usually use to surf the Internet. *Thanks to Connie aka Astro, for viewing this tute for me and for pointing out that not all browsers support FTP*... I did a search and found this tute for Netscape users. So before you start you will need to find out whether or not your server allows this method of FTP and also whether your Browser supports it...as far as I have seen, you will have no trouble using this with IE versions 5 up to the present, 6.0.
Here's how you use FTP in the Internet Explorer Browser. Are you ready? *s*
How to upload your files using 'I E Browser' FTP
Step 1 * Open up your browser that you use for browsing the internet. Type in the ftp url for your web space provider....like in this image on the right.
If you are not sure what this url is then check with the provider of your web space. You need to also find out whether they support both browser and ftp uploading...some do only one or the other and some do both.
Step 2 * A login window will open up and here you will put in your private user name and password...like so.>>>> Click on the 'Login' button
Still with me? Haven't chickened out and ran off yet? LOL Good onya! *s*
Step 3 * Now if you got that last step correct and provided the right password etc...then you should find yourself in the window of your web space >>>>>>>
Do you feel the tingles of excitement when you do this for the first time? I did. *s*
Step 4 * We are in business now. *s*
Find and open up the folder where you keep the files that you need to upload.
If it is a tutorial or webpage that you are uploading, make sure that you go to Edit....and Select All....as you will need all of your tutorial files, html and images etc. together in the same place.
See pic below.
Step 5 * Make sure that you have both your website window and window where your files are kept, open and side by side....to do this I make mine smaller so that they are both open at the same time. Now drag those highlighted files over to the window of your website
See those empty boxes over on the right side? They are the files that I have dragged over...but haven't as yet released the button to start the copying. *just so I could show you what happens*
Once you let go of that button, this window on the right will pop up to show you that the files are being uploaded.
Step 6 * When it has finished copying the files, you should then see all the 'newbie' files sitting in your website window. That's it!!! Now how easy was that? *s* Give yourself a big pat on the back!
I hope that this mini tute has helped you newbie's overcome those nerves a wee bit and giving you a bit of an insight on how the ftp works.
This has just been a basic mini tutorial to help some of you make that first step into ftp...however, there will no doubt be more in depth tutorials somewhere on the net if you'd care to go search for them...hopefully this one has helped you a little. *s*
Now while I was doing my searching, I found this other interesting site that some of you, who are wanting to make websites, may find interesting and helpful http://www.accessv.com/~email/webpages/upload.html
Foot note***Since writing this tutorial, I have reformatted my computer and upgraded from Windows ME to XP, and when I tried to use the above methods, I could no longer get into the sites...so I did a search on Google and found the answer...'I had to go to Internet Options...Advanced...and check the 'Use Passive FTP' box...so I did....result...Eureka! Not a problem. *s***
