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FTP Uploading

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You should be using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload your pages to your server. You code the page on your machine, go online, open a FTP client, and use it to upload your new and updated pages. Keep in mind that you upload your pages through a different port and possibly to a different place than the URL where people come to see your site.

When you sign up for an account with a server, even a free one, you need to know six important things about your site:

Six Things To Know To Upload

  • Your URL. The address you type into your browser to view your site. This is your site's "root directory".

  • The FTP address you'll be uploading to. It looks like a web URL except it starts with "ftp://" instead of "http://". In some FTP clients and on some servers, you don't have to include the "ftp" part.

  • Your user name. Sometimes this is the same as your FTP address or vice versa. Sometimes it's something you pick.

  • Your password. This is pretty much all that keeps others from uploading to your site.

  • How to acess your servers various services like site statistics and available CGIs.

  • The default main page filename. When someone types your URL into a browser, they probably won't ask for a specific HTML file. Somewhere on your site you'll need to place your main page with a specific filename like "index.html" or "main.html". This is the file that's displayed by default when someone types in "http://www.yoursite.com" instead of http://www.yoursite.com/page2.html". You'll need to know what to name this file and what folder on the server to put it in. Most servers use "index.htm" or "index.html" placed right on your root directory. Your root directory will be the overall file system you see when your FTP client connects.


Generally you'll recieve an email containing this info so you can save it. Make sure to write all this stuff down. The services your server offers will probably be linked right on their main page. If you have questions go to the server's help area or email them. I've not had much trouble with free servers, commercial servers are a different story.

Always see if a commercial server will let you use your account for a few days before payment is due. This used to be a standard practice, but it's becoming less popular among commercial servers. The new trend is to pay up front and hope for the best. It is wise to ask around on various web development forums and sites hosted by the server as to the servers quality and weaknesses.

The information you need from a commercial server is the same as listed above. Make sure you get this all together and write it down.

Next you need to get a good FTP client. This is the program that connects to the server's FTP port. It will need to know the appropriate FTP address to upload to, your user name, and your password to connect. You can use it to select the files on your machine to upload to the server. Likewise, you can select files from the server to download to your machine.

Take your time configuring your FTP client. It will ask for the FTP address to upload to, a user name and password. Most problems are due to mistyped names, passwords, and FTP addresses. These have to be very specific. If one FTP client doesn't work for you try another. Trouble with two different FTP clients probably means you aren't entering your data correctly.

If you have continuing, mysterious problems, click the HELP!! button to the left or email me.

Organizing Your Upload

You should make a list of the files you need to upload as you edit or create new pages. Copy these to a special "upload" folder on your hard drive. If your site uses sub-directories, copy your sub-directory scheme in this upload folder as needed and sort your files into them. This really helps remind you which files go where on your server.

This organization really helps later when you edit only a few pages of a large site. Just list the files you've edited and then copy them into your upload folder. This makes archiving your site easier, too. Get into the habit of archiving your site with every update.

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