How do I access my files via FTP?

To transfer files into your account you will use FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

Step 1 -- Create your FTP Account

• The first step to using FTP is creating an FTP account. In the Control Panel, click the 'Hosting Manager' link from the green menu, find your site in the services list, and click the 'Site Manager' link beside it. On the proceeding page, choose 'Email & FTP' from the menu on the left, then click 'Add Email/FTP Account'. Enter a username, password, and be sure "Enable FTP Access" is checked.

Step 2 -- Download an FTP Client

• Next you will need FTP client software to transfer files. Users of Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows can use the free and open-source FTP client FileZilla.

  Other examples of FTP clients include:

  • Windows: CuteFTP, WS_FTP
  • Linux: gFTP
  • Mac OSX: Interarchy, Transmit

  Consult the documentation for those programs for how to use them.

Step 3 -- Connect to your Account

• To connect to any FTP account, whichever FTP client you are using, you will typically need a "FTP server hostname", "username", and "password." The hostname will be ftp.example.com, where example.com is your domain. The username is name@example.com, where name is the account name you created in Step 1. Be sure to use the full account name including @example.com, where example.com is your domain.

• Once connected, you should see four directories:
  • /cgi-bin/ -- Scripts and applications that need to be executable must be placed here. For example: Python, Perl, and Ruby scripts are kept here. These scripts are accessible via http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/
  • /etc/ -- A maintenance directory where such things as MySQL database files and configuration information are kept. You should not typically need to access any of the files here.
  • /htdocs/ -- The public web directory files placed here are viewable via the web address http://www.example.com/. Some, but by no means all examples of web files are html, php, jpg, and gif.
  • /logs/ -- The raw "hit" logs for your website are available here.

To place files on your website, put them into the "htdocs" directory. Your logfiles may be downloaded from the "logs" directory, while CGI executables should be placed in the "cgi-bin" directory. The etc directory contains behind-the-scenes data associated with your account. You should not need to access to this directory. IMPORTANT: Do not move or delete any of these 4 main directories; each one is vital to running your website!