Uploading With FTP

Step 1: Obtain FTP client software.

Uploading to the server through FTP requires special software. Windows XP comes with a built-in ftp application. Before XP, most computer systems did not come with FTP clients, so you would have to download one from the Internet. Some suggestions: IBM/Windows: LeechFTP (free), WS_FTP LE (free), FTP Explorer (free), CuteFTP (free trial). Macintosh: Fetch (free), Transmit (free trial).

Step 2: Connect to the server.

All FTP clients need the following information:

Username - This is your control panel username.
Password - This is your control panel password.
Address - This is the address of the server. Use ftp.yourdomain.com
Port - Use the default port (21). Unless there is a place to enter this, the ftp port will automatically be set.

Some clients may ask for the host type (select "auto"), ASCII/Binary/Auto (select "auto), and the initial remote folder (you may leave this blank or change it to /domains/ yourdomain.com/public_html to start off in the main web directory).

Step 3: Open the public_html directory and upload your files. Your account has been created in this directory, so when you login, you should be at your "root" folder (ie. gifa)

To upload, highlight the files/folders on your computer and drag them into the appropriate directory on the remote server. Each FTP client operates differently, so please consult its help file for complete instructions.

Terminology

Ftp URL
The domain name of IP address of a ftp server followed by an optional starting directory. For example, "ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub". In most occasions where a Ftp URL is needed in BlazeFtp, you may omit the prefix "ftp ://".

Local Site
A general conception in BlazeFtp which defines the local file system as a local site as opposed to a remote site. You can open a local site by specifying a local directory. A local site holds a navigatable local file list.

Passive Mode
In passive mode connection, the ftp server listens on the data connection port, waiting for the client to connect to that port. In active mode, the client listens on the data connection port, waiting for the server to connect to that port. Due to some firewall settings, you have to use passive mode to connect to some of the ftp sites.

Peer Site/File List
Generally it refers to the active site or file list in the opposite side (i.e., the right side for the left side, or the other way around). The peer site/file list will be the default target of a transfer operation. For site to site transfer, peer site refers to the other remote site to or from which the transfer goes.

Remote Site
A remote ftp server site. A remote site holds a navigatable remote file list, called a remote file list.

Transfer Mode
For a ftp session, it has two modes to transfer a file, one is ASCII mode and the other is binary. ASCII mode and binary mode deal with <Carriage Return> symbols in different ways. Ideally you should transfer text files in ASCII mode and binary files in binary mode. You should always transfer a binary file in binary mode. Otherwise the file may be cut short during transfer. It's ok for you to transfer a text file in binary mode from between two PC's. But it'll cause problems when you are transfer text files in binary mode between a PC and a Unix machine.

Wild Card
Wild card is used on MS windows to match file names. It uses the symbol '*' to represent any string including the null string. It uses the symbol '?' to represent one arbitrary character. For example, "*.txt", " abc ?def.ext".

FTP USING INTERNET EXPLORER

Read the tutorial carefully. You will need to use the class FTP address and your login and password. (See above information). All students will be able to FTP in class on Tuesday, October 30. If you were absent or not able to ftp your site, please come to tutorials BEFORE the FTP test on Friday, Nov. 2

OTHER FTP APPLICATIONS...

New : BlazeFtp 2.1 released on August 19, 2003. What's New

BlazeFtp is a multiple-session and cache-enabled ftp client with offline searching capability. It's slim, easy to use and powerful. You can learn to use it in several minutes. BlazeFtp also has many special features making esp. convenient to be used by webmasters.

Features

Multiple session interface based on multiple transfer threads.
Remote directory structure and file listing locally cached.
Lightning-fast offline searching on multiple ftp sites with support of regular expression.
Hierarchical transfer job definition, management and access
Miscellaneous shortcuts to connect to a ftp site.
Uniform integration of local file copy, uploading, downloading and site-to-site transfer.
Persistent and smart transfer engine.
Intelligent file type recognition based on both extension matching and content examination.

Connect to a Ftp Site

There are 3 ways to connect to a ftp site.

	Using Site Manager Click the site manager button on the toolbar to bring up the site manager. Select the site you want , click <Connect> button and you will be connected to that site.
	Using Quick-Connect Bar The Quick-Connect Bar is the bar consisting of combo boxes, edit boxes, check boxes and buttons. In the quick-connect bar, type the site address (you may also include the starting directory), user name, password and port. Then click the <Connect> button to connect to the specified site. For anonymous sites, you need only specify a site name.
	Using Site Pane In either of the two site panes, type a ftp URL in the path edit box and you will be connected to that site.

Transferring Files

You should connect to the sites before you start transferring files to and from them.

You can transfer one or more files or folders from a site to another site. If it's from a local one to another local one, it's local copy. If it's from remote to local, it's download. If it's from local to remote, it's upload. If it's from remote to remote, it's negotiated site-to-site transfer. All these kinds of transferring are treated uniformly in BlazeFtp.

	You need simply drag files or folders from the source site to the destination site to transfer those files or folders. Files under the selected folders will be transferred recursively. You can either choose to start the transfer immediately or have the files queued for future transfer.
	You can drag files to the queue view. In this way, the files will be only be queued and transfer will not start immediately.
	You can also choose <upload> or <download> from the popup menu in the file lists to transfer files.
	Click the start button on the toolbar to start transferring the files in the queue.
	Click the stop button on the toolbar to stop transferring.

Site-to-Site Transfer

You may right click on a site tab and select "Move to Peer Pane" to move the site to the other side so that you can drag files between two remote sites.

Site-to-site transfer is to transfer files directly from one ftp site to another ftp site without downloading the files to local file system. It's esp. useful in the occasion that you want to transfer files from a slow-to-access ftp server to a fast-to-access ftp server whereas the two ftp servers are fast to access each other. When site-to-site transfer is complete, you can download files from the fast-to-access ftp server. After all, this is a feature which comes in handy when you need it. Since site-to-site transfer is only a negotiated transfer between two servers, BlazeFtp has no way to determine the transfer status of files. It only knows when transfer is completed or aborted.

You shouldn't burden the two sites which is negotiating site-to-site transfer with other download or upload jobs. Start site-to-site transfer with two sites both of which have empty queues. Otherwise the regular download or upload jobs may interfere with site-to-site transfer.

You need just drag file or folders from the source site to the destination site to start site-to-site transfer. Transfer speed and percentage are not displayed since they are actually non-determinable. You may need to view the log of both sessions to ensure everything is going on all right. You can activate either of the two sites and click <Stop> button to stop site-to-site transfer. The files will only be queued in the session receiving files which is called the master session. The session which sends out files are called slave session which is controlled by the master session.

Switching Sites

Since there may be multiple concurrent sites in BlazeFtp, you have to switch between these sites. You can activate a site by clicking the corresponding tab page in the site pane. You can also switch to a site by selecting the site from the session list box in the left bottom corner of main window. When a remote site is activated, the log view on the top of main window will show the log of the corresponding session. The queue view at the bottom of the main window will show the queued files for that session. When you activate a local site, you will see no change in the log view and the queue view area.

Offline Search

Offline search engine enables you to search for files recursively in local cache. It supports wild cards and regular expression. It can carry out the search on multiple servers. Select the menu item "tools->offline search" to bring up the offline search dialog.

How to perform offline searching?

	Choose one or more sites from the available sites and move them to the sites to search.
	Specify a matching pattern. By default, the matching pattern will be interpreted as a windows wild card. You can check the option <Regular Expression> to have it interpreted as a regular expression.
	Click search to start offline searching.
	When the searching is complete, select any file from the result list. Click <Copy URL> button to get its download link. Click <Open In Browser> to download the selected file using default browser.

Using Transfer Jobs

You can define jobs to simplify your transferring tasks. Jobs are saved from transferring queues. You can save jobs by selecting "Queue" from the main menu or right-clicking a site in the site list box (at the left-bottom of the main window) and using the context menu. You should save a job under the "jobs" folder or its sub-folder under BlazeFtp installation directory. After that, the stored jobs will be available from the jobs drop-down button on the toolbar. You can select any one of them and get transfer started immediately! Since the jobs support sub-folders, you can keep all your transferring tasks well organized if you are a webmaster. Check the screenshot below,

	Save All Queues As Job Select "Queue->Save All Queues As Jobs" from the main menu or right click in the site list box (at the left-bottom of the main window) and select "Save All As Job". This will save all transfer queues as a single job.
	Save Selected Queue As Job Right click in the site list box (at the left-bottom of the main window) and select "Save As Job". This will save the selected queue as a single job.
	Import Job Select "Queue->Import Job" from the main menu or select "import job..." from the site list box context menu.
	Delete A Job or Folder Click the jobs drop-down button on the toolbar to show the jobs drop-down menu. Right click on a menu item to get a context menu. Select "Delete" to remove the current item.
	Editing A Job Hold down CTRL key while selecting a job from the jobs drop-down menu. This will place the job into the queue without starting transfer. You can add or remove entries and save it back.