FTP Tools

What is an FTP Client?
An FTP Client is software that is designed to transfer files back-and-forth between two computers over the Internet. It needs to be installed on your computer and can only be used with a live connection to the Internet.

The classic FTP Client look is a two-pane design. The pane on the left displays the files on your computer and the pane on the right displays the files on the remote computer.

File transfers are as easy as dragging-and-dropping files from one pane to the other or by highlighting a file and clicking one of the direction arrows located between the panes.

Additional features of the FTP Client include: multiple file transfer; the auto re-get or resuming feature; a queuing utility; the scheduling feature; an FTP find utility; a synchronize utility; and for the advanced user, a scripting utility.

All of these features will be explained later.

Download and install an FTP Client.
Download WS_FTP LE here
You can download several FTP programs for free. I also reccomend Cute FTP.

Let's start by opening WS_FTP LE. This is done by clicking on the Start button and then select Programs, then WS_FTP LE, and then WS_FTP LE.

When you open WS_FTP LE, you're taken directly to the Session Properties Window. This is where you select which FTP site you'd like to connect to. For this tutorial, we're going to connect to a new FTP site so please click on the New button located near the top right-hand side of the Session Properties Window.

When you click the New button, all the fields will go blank. To connect to a new FTP site, you'll need to know the following information:

Profile Name: This is a nickname of sorts, use for storing all the information of your FTP site. It can be anything you like, but for this tutorial we'll use the Profile Name WS_FTP LE Tutorial

Host Name/ Address: This is the Internet address of the FTP site you want to connect to. For this tutorial, the Host Name is tutorial.ftpplanet.com

User ID: This is a security feature for gaining access to an FTP site. For this tutorial, your given temporary access to the Tutorial's FTP site using the unique UserID: user-Name

Password: This is a security feature for gaining access to an FTP site. For this tutorial, your given temporary access to the Tutorial's FTP site using the unique Password: 9550

Please type these values into the Connection Window as follows:

When your Session Properties Window has the appropriate values entered (i.e. looks identical to the one above), you're ready to connect!

Click the OK button and WS_FTP LE will connect you to your temporary personal Web space. If you have speakers on your computer, you'll hear the sound when you've successfully connected.

Congratulations, you have successfully connected to your temporary personal Web space! Your WS_FTP LE screen should now look like this:

The left side (or left pane) is a view of the files on your computer, or your Local System. The right side is a view of the files on temporary personal Web space or Remote Site.

You'll notice that there is only one file, index.html, in the Remote Site (right side). We're going to transfer this file from the Remote Site to your Local System.

First, highlight the file index.html in the Remote Site by clicking on it once. Then click the left transfer arrow located between the right and left panes.

WS_FTP LE will then transfer the index.html file from your Remote Site to your Local System. If you have speakers on your computer, you'll hear the sound when you've successfully transferred.

Congratulations, you have successfully downloaded a file using WS_FTP LE! You should now see a new file named index.html on your Local System.

Eventually we're going to transfer this file back to your Remote System, but before we do that, we're going to modify the file.

Highlight index.html on your Local System and click the View button.

WS_FTP LE will automatically open index.html in the text editor Notepad. Within Notepad, you should see the following text: "This is ______'s test page. I have successfully transferred a file over the Internet using WS_FTP LE."

Now, customize this page by replacing the ______ with Name so that it reads, "This is Name's test page. I have successfully transferred a file over the Internet using WS_FTP LE."

Save your changes in Notepad by clicking File from the menu and then selecting Save. Then exit Notepad by clicking File from the menu and then selecting Exit.

With your changes saved to your index.html file on your Local System, it's time to transfer the file back up to the Remote Site.

Highlight the file index.html on your Local System by clicking on it once. Then click the right transfer arrow located between the right and left panes.

WS_FTP LE will then transfer index.html file from your Local System to your Remote Site. WS_FTP LE will inform you that there is already a file on your Remote Site named index.html, and ask you if sure you'd like to overwrite it.

Click the Yes button, which will overwrite the existing index.html file that is already on your Remote Site with the modified index.html file you're uploading from your Local System. If you have speakers on your computer, you'll hear the sound when you've successfully transferred.

Congratulations, you now successfully uploaded a file using WS_FTP LE!

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