How to Build a Website With an FTP Program
File transfer protocol (FTP) programs provide a way for a website owner to access the server that hosts her websites to edit existing pages and create new content. FTP clients allows a website owner to efficiently drag and drop multiple files of varying sizes to or from a remote (host) server and any computer with an Internet connection.
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Instructions
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Uploading
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Open your FTP program by double-clicking on the icon on your desktop or locating it in the programs list of your Start Menu. Enter your FTP server, user name and password in the respective fields. For most connections, you do not need to enter a "Port" number; however, the default port is "21." Press the appropriate button to establish a connection. Alternatively, you can use Windows Explorer for limited FTP service. Open any folder on your computer and type "ftp://" followed by the address to your FTP server. For example "ftp://ftp.yourdomain.com." Enter your login credentials and press "Log on" to access your hosting server.
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Navigate to the directory that contains your web documents in the "Remote" pane (typically on the right side) of your FTP program. If your hosts uses cPanel, this is the "public_html" folder. H-Sphere users should click on the domain name to open the web directory. Some setups provide users with a "www" folder to store documents that others can access via browser.
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Open the folder containing your website files in the "Local" pane (usually on the left side). Double-click or right-click and select "Upload" to upload the files. If you upload "index.html" to the directory for "yourdomain.com," it will be available to users who type "http://yourdomain.com/index.html" into the address bar of their web browser. You can also drag files from an open folder, such as "My Documents" into FTP clients such as Filezilla. If using Windows Explorer for FTP, drag files from another, open Explorer window into the FTP instance.
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Upload essential files to your web host. When a user visits your website, her browser will automatically open a file with the name of "index," unless you have instructed your server to display another file by default. Make sure to upload an "index.html" (or another "index.extension" depending on your needs). Other essential files may be include "About," "Contact," "Products" or "Services" pages. For your separate web pages to connect to one another, you must include anchor links in the following syntax, where "Page Location" is the actual web address of the page and "Link Text" is a descriptive link label: <a href="Page Location">Link Text</a>.
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Upload images, scripts and other nonpage files by dragging and dropping or double-clicking from the "Local" pane in your FTP client.
Editing
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Right-click on a file in the "Remote" pane and select "Edit" to open the file in a text editor. Make any changes you wish to the document. If you do not have an edit option, double-click on the file to download it to your computer. Right-click and choose "Edit" to open the file from its location on your computer. Explorer does not provide editing options. Drag and drop the file you wish to edit into an open folder on your computer. Right-click and select "Edit" to open in your default text program or select "Open With" to choose your preferred text or HTML editor.
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Select "Save" from the "File" menu or press "Ctrl" + "S" on your keyboard to save the file. Close the file by selecting "File" and clicking "Close."
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Follow any prompts from your FTP client to upload the file. Drag and drop the completed file from its location on your computer to the FTP instance of Explorer. If the program asks if you wish to overwrite the current file, choose "Yes."
Other Processes
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Right-click a file in your FTP and select "Rename" to change the file name.
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Right-click a file and choose "Permissions" or "CHMOD" ("Properties" in Explorer) to change the permissions. Click the appropriate permissions or type in the numeric permissions level, such as "777." Press "OK" to place the changes into effect.
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Select the file and press "Delete" on your keyboard to delete it via FTP. You can also right-click and choose "Delete."
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Tips & Warnings
Contact your web host if you do not know your FTP server, user name or password. Although most FTP programs open web pages such as HTML files in a text editor such as Notepad, you can create and edit your web pages in any program of your preference. Keeping certain files in specific directories can help keep your file list organized. For example, you may keep all images in an "img" folder and all CGI scripts in the "cgi-bin." Remember that files in specific directories will have the directory in the file URL. For example, an image named "dog.gif" in the "img" folder will have a web address of "http://yoursite.com/img/dog.gif."
