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Using WS_FTP LE To Transfer Files!

by Carrie

WS_FTP LE (Light Edition) is a fantastic no-frills shareware program to transfer
files. Download it here for free.

Once the file is saved to your hard drive, double-click on it to open it and
begin installing. The program will ask a few questions - tell it that you're an
"other" user that will be using it from home for personal use. Accept the
licensing agreement and allow the program to finish installing.

When
you first start up WS_FTP you'll have two windows pop up.

The one in front is Session Properties, where you will define your connection
settings.

Host Name/Address: This is where you put the connection info for the
server. Usually this is something like "ftp.yourdomain.com".

Host Type: Leave this on Auto-Detect.

User ID: Put your ftp username here. Uncheck the 'Anonymous' box just
to the right.

Password: Put your ftp password here. Be sure to check the 'Save Pwd'
button just to the right (you may not want to do this if there are multiple
users on your computer).

Account and Comment: Leave these two fields blank.

Click the Apply button so that WS_FTP saves your settings. Press OK to
connect.

The Sessions Properties window will go away and you'll be left with the larger
transfer window behind it.

1.) The left-hand side of the screen will be a directory/file listing of your hard
drive. The right-hand side will be a directory/file listing of your web space on
the server. In short, we're going to select one file from the left side (your
computer) and send it to the right side (your web space).

2.) This is the directory listing on your computer, starting in the directory
where WS_FTP was installed. Double-click on the green arrow button to move up
and out of that directory, and browse through your hard drive by
double-clicking on folders to move into them.

3.) This is your folders/files listing. If you have multiple drives you'll see
them listed at the bottom. Double-clicking on a drive letter will take you
into that drive. You can FTP files from any drive (including CDs) on your
computer. Single-click on a file to select it - you'll note that it becomes
highlighted in blue when selected. Choose multiple files by holding down the
CTRL key while clicking on the files that you want to send. You can transfer
multiple files at once, however you will not be able to do anything else with
WS_FTP until all of those files are finished transferring.

4.) This is the directory/folder that you are currently in on your webspace.
Again, double-click on the green up arrow to move up and out of a folder, and
double-click on folder names to move into them.

5.) This is your file listing in your webspace. Remember that a web site's
directories and folders are laid out in the same type of folder/file listing
as what you'll find on your computer. After all, a web site server is simply a
more powerful computer with a very large hard drive in which you've claimed a
small amount of space.

6.) This is the "extra info" window. You can type some commands into this
field and have WS_FTP do them for you. Most commonly this is used to show
hidden files, such as .htaccess or .htpasswd. To see hidden files, type "-la"
(without quotes) into this field and click the Refresh button.

7.) Here you select whether you want to transfer files in ASCII or Binary
mode. Text, HTML, and scripting files (.cgi, .pl) should always be transferred
in ASCII format. Complex files such as images (.jpg, .gif), zip files (.zip,
.gz, .tar) and rich-text documents (.doc, .pdf) should be transferred in
Binary mode.

7.) These arrows actually begin the transfer process. Selecting a file on the
left side of the screen (your hard drive) and pressing the right arrow will
transfer the file from your computer to the server. Selecting a file on the
right side of the screen (your web space) and pressing the left arrow will
transfer the file from your web space onto your hard drive.

Files are always transferred from/into the directories that are currently
showing on the transfer screen. Once a file is finished transferring, the
window will refresh and you'll see an updated listing of files.

You can transfer an entire directory simply by selecting (single-clicking) a
directory and pressing the appropriate arrow key. A confirmation window will
pop up asking if you wish to move the entire directoy and its contents. Press
"Yes" to continue. It is best to only do this when all of the files in that
directory can be transferred in the same mode (for example, all image files),
or if you have specified which files should be transferred in which mode
(next).

8.) The options button will allow you to define advanced settings in WS_FTP,
including specifying which files should always be transferred in ASCII mode.
Pressing this button will pop open a new window with many tabs and settings.

To specify which files should be transferred in ASCII mode, click the
"Extensions" tab.

.txt

.html

.htm

.shtml

.shtm

.php

.php3

.php4

.cgi

.pl

.asp

.inc

.cfg

.htaccess

.htpasswd

.log

When you're finished, click "Apply" and then "OK". You can now check the
"Auto" checkbox in the file transfer mode area (area 6 of our illustration
above) and WS_FTP will automatically determine which files should be transferred
in which mode. Anything that you did not specify in the Options Properties
window will be transferred as a Binary file.

Notes:

Using the other buttons on the screen you can rename or delete files. Take
care when doing this. While a renamed file can easily be renamed again if you
make a mistake, deleting a file cannot be undone! Also, you cannot delete
a directory that has any files in it. You must delete all of the files in the
directory first (speed this up by selecting all of the files at once using the
SHIFT key while you select the top and bottom files) first, then move up out of
the directory (green arrow) and delete the directory itself. If you receive an
error when attempting to delete a directory, it means that there is either a
file still in the directory (it may be hidden, use "-la" to see it) or the
permissions on the folder will not allow it to be deleted. See the "Working With
CGI & PL Files" tutorials for more information on permissions.

Always keep a copy of your web site and all of its files on your computer's
hard drive. Web site servers do suffer hard drive crashes from time to time, or
other unfortunate mishaps that cause your files to be lost. Keeping a copy on
your home/office computer will allow you to have your web site back up and
running quickly without having to rebuild everything from scratch.

Save time and bandwidth by updating all of your files on your hard drive
first, then uploading the finished versions all at once. Don't get into the
time-consuming habit of working with one file, transferring it, then working
with another file, transferring it; viewing them in your browser, making more
updates, transferring again... this will eat away at your time. Do everything
once and be finished with it.

To close your FTP session, simply press the "Close" button in the lower
left-hand corner. The next time you open WS_FTP it will automatically come up
with the last Profile you used. If you have multiple domains, simply use the
drop-down button by Profile Name to choose which web site you wish to connect
to.