Installing Filezilla
Put very simply, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used to transfer your website files from your computer to your host server. If you understand how to use a command line interface like the Windows MS-DOS prompt window (which I don’t) you can also transfer your files that way instead. If not, there are plenty of programs (mostly, if not all free) like FileZilla that offer a simple way to transfer your files.
Here are some of the programs that you can download from the Web:
WS_FTP (http://www.ipswitch.com)
CuteFTP (http://www.cuteftp.com)
FTP Explorer (http://www.winsite.com)
Fetch (http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/fetch.html)
LeechFTP (http://stud.fh-heilbronn.de/~jdebis/leechftp/downloads.html)
FileZilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net)
Core FTP Lite (http://www.coreftp.com/download.html)
First, you need to make sure that your host provides and FTP account. What I mean by that is in order for you to use an FTP program like FileZilla, your host needs to allow access to a file system. If they don’t, you will not be able to use FTP. Most hosts will tell you if they provide an FTP account, but you also can check if there is an FTP account available by typing ftp.example.com or ftp://ftp.example.com. If a page opens asking for your password or shows the contents of your home directory, you are in luck, there is an FTP account available. If not, don’t worry, you can still transfer your files (I will show you how in a future article). If your host does not offer an FTP account, it probably indicates that they are not the best host.
If you choose to use FileZilla like I did, you can download it easily for free. Go to http://filezilla-project.org/ and on the main page click on the Download FileZilla Client and on the following page choose the appropriate file to download (in my case it was FileZilla_3.2.1_win32-setup.exe). You can pretty much save the file wherever you want. I saved mine in the C:\Temp folder.
The following instructions are based on version 3.2.1, so things might be slightly different if you have another version. Once you have downloaded FileZilla it is pretty much ready to go immediately.
Plug in host information
I believe when you first open FileZilla, the contents of your computer should show up immediately on the left side of the screen in the Local Site area. When you open up FileZilla, you will need to plug in information regarding your webhosting account so that you can connect your computer to your webhost. (If you don’t have a webhost account, you must set one up before you can move forward. See the Choosing a webhost section for details on how to do that.)
To plug in your host information, go to File-Site Manager and when the next screen opens, make sure you are on the General tab. Note: If you have already created a site and are creating an additional one, you will need to click the New Site button and insert the name in the text box first. In the Host field, you will type your host name, which in most cases is ftp.example.com. If you aren’t sure what name you should use, you can probably find that information from your web host-I found my information through my web host’s website as well as in an email they sent me when I first set up the site (or you could just give it a shot and hope it works)! In the Server Type field, choose FTP – File Transfer Protocol or a similar name if you are using another version. Unless you have a specific reason, leave the Port field blank. In the Logontype field, choose Normal from the dropdown menu. In the User and Password fields you should be able to use the same information that you set up your Control Panel through your host. You can leave the Account and Comments fields blank. If all goes well, the contents of your host server should now show up on the right side of the screen.
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