Questions about FTP

What is uploading?
What's a server?
Do I need to choose a server?
What software is necessary?
Can this be done anywhere?
What gets uploaded?
Can I download files, too?
How do I use FTP?

 

What is uploading?

"Yikes!" you say.  "What else do I need to know?"

What's a server?

"Ok. That's pretty simple.  There must be more," you speculate.

Do I need to choose a server?

"So, are you saying that I've already got server space somewhere?" you ask.

"Yes, but to activate your Saclink account or your ISP web space, you need to be proactive.  Go to the University Computing and Communications Services for a Saclink account and find out about it.  As well, call your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and let them know you want to use their server to store a website.  They'll tell you how much space they have allocated to their users." 

"What about the Cohort / iMET / ETA server?"

"I'm getting there....."

What software is necessary?

Can this be done anywhere?

What gets uploaded?

Can I download files, too?

So how do I use FTP?

This is the section for those of you who are using a Mac.  I'll use Saclink as the server for now, but the only specific details that will be different will concern the Host, the User ID, Password and Directory.

You will need to download Fetch. Most likely, however, it will be on the computer you use in the lab. Open Fetch by double clicking on its icon. You will see a window that looks similar to this.

Hit "Cancel" and go to "Customize" => "New Shortcut" as you see in the image below.

You will see a window similar to the one below.

Enter the correct information to make the window similar to this one if you're configuring Saclink.

Obviously, your User ID will be different than mine. Don't enter your password because this information is saved on the computer you're using in the lab at the time.

Enter the correct information to make the window similar to this one if you're configuring for the Cohort / iMET / ETA server.

Once you click on OK, you have a shortcut that you can access from that particular computer. If you use another computer, you'll need to reconfigure another new shortcut. Since I do most of my uploading at home, I usually forget the procedure. Lucky for me I have it written down somewhere!

To actually upload something, all you really do is open Fetch, cancel the window that opens up first, go to "File" => "Open Shortcut" and you'll see your account name that you entered into the window above. You'll see lots of other accounts, too. Just ignore them. You only need yours. When you open your shortcut, you'll see the password window.

Your user name will be at the top (not mine) followed by @saclink.csus.edu or @classweb.educ.csus.edu. Enter your password and press return. A window opens with a little dog that "fetches" your directory on the Saclink or iMET  server. Here's the directory window below with the fetch pooch scooting right along!

When the dog stops, you're in your directory. At this point, you go to "Remote" => "Put Folders and Files" in the Mac menu bar.

The last window that opens is the one that lets you select the files you want to upload. It looks like this. When you're finished adding to the list (double click on the files you want), click Done! You can drag and drop from your file folders to the directory window above, too.

The Window above shows you a portion of my San Juan folder on my hard drive. The files that I double click will appear in the little window below that one and upload to one of the CSUS faculty servers. You will upload hundreds of times! Typically, when I make a web page, I edit, save, browse and upload eight or nine times per page. It pays to get to know this procedure as soon as possible.

On Windows machines, the WS_FTP set-up looks like this: 

When you see this "Session Properties" window for the first time, click on "New" and you'll be taken to a "Session Properties" window with most of the text boxes empty. 

After you hit OK, your new window looks like this.

The window on the left is your computer; the one on the right is the remote server. You'll be taken to a root directory where you'll create a folder with your last name spelled in lowercase with no spaces or special characters.  Notice the window on the right below shows that a student whose last name is Harms has created a folder, harms, in the riolinda1 directory.  Within that folder, this student may create many more folders that contain websites.

You will need to make your own folder when you get to this point.  To do this, look in the remote server side of the window above and locate the MkDir button.  When you click on that you will see the window below.

You need to enter your last name in lower case letters. Remember all those rules for filenames?  All lower case with no special characters.  Click OK and you'll return to the window which shows your hard drive on the left and the server on the right.  When you doubleclick on your new folder, you'll see the server side of the window will be blank.  Notice that we're in harms' folder, but there's nothing uploaded to it yet.  

You must now use the left side of the window above and navigate to the web you would like to upload.  To change directories on either side of the window, click on the little green arrow . So, click on the green arrow in left side of the window (your hard drive) to locate the correct folder you need to upload.  You can also upload a single file.  

Choose the files or folders in your hard drive to upload to the server by selecting (painting) them. Once selected, click on the arrow between the two windows that points to the right . Doing the opposite will download files from the server to your hard drive. Kapeesh?  Hey, it's not rocket science.  When you're done, click on "Close" at the bottom-left of the WS_ftp window.  

And finally, your URL will be something like the URL below except with your name for the final folder.  If you used an index.htm as your first page (and you should), then that will be your default whenever someone enters your URL.

http://imet.csus.edu/imet1/weaver/

or

http://cohort.csus.edu/sanjuan1/lamarr/

or

http://eta.csus.edu/pages/condos/

 

You can send your URL to anyone in the world who is online, and they can see what you've done. You can even e-mail it to yourself if you think you'll forget it!