watch the video: "How To FTP" video tutorial

STEP ONE: INTRODUCTION TO FTP PROGRAMS

To get your web pages uploaded to your hosting account, you need to use an a "file transfer" or FTP program.

I believe the most popular FTP software is called WS-FTP from http://www.ipswitch.com, but the main screen that you're taken to after you open the software isn't as user-friendly as we prefer.

If you're a student or a non-profit you can use the WS-FTP LE version. It's free for non-commercial use.

Recently we found another FTP program that's exceeded our expectations quite a bit so we'll go over that one.

It's called 3D-FTP and you can download it from: http://www.3dftp.com

STEP TWO: DOWNLOAD & INSTALL THE SOFTWARE

Here's how simple it is to setup the 3D-FTP software:

Step 2.1: Find the .exe file you downloaded from the 3DFTP site and double click it open.

Step 2.2: Follow the on-screen prompts to install the software to your computer. (You'll want to install it to /Program Files/3D-FTP/)

Step 2.3: Once the installation's finished you'll see a new icon for the 3D-FTP program on your computer's desktop or in your START > PROGRAM Files menu.

Click the 3D-FTP icon in the START/PROGRAMS menu to open the program.

STEP THREE: SETTING UP YOUR FTP ACCOUNT

When the 3D-FTP program is open, here's what the first screen looks like that you'll see:

Step 3.1: Click the "CONNECT" button on the top left of the program

Once you've got the program open you need to "setup" a new site so you have to click the "CONNECT" button. That opens up a new window and that's where you set up your first website.

Step 3.2: When The New Window Opens, Click "CONNECT" again

When the new window opens up, click the CONNECT button on the right hand side, like this:

That opens up the main screen where all your "accounts" are kept.

Step 3.3: Get The "FTP" Information From Your Web Host

When you see the main screen now, there will be existing sites listed in the menu but you can ignore those.

What you need now is the "FTP" information from your host. It'll look like this:

Hostname: ftp.whatever.com
Username: whatever
Password: XXXXXXXX

You take that information and plug that into the software so get ready.

STEP FOUR: CONFIGURING YOUR PROGRAM

Step 4.1: Click the "NEW" Button On the Right To Add Your Site

It's only required that you fill in 4 things when this new window opens so don't worry about 'Prompt for Password on Connect" or "Local Init Dir" and "Remote Init Dir". You can leave those blank.

Just enter the data you have, like you see in the example below:

Then click the OK button.

Now your first FTP account is ready to use.

STEP FIVE: EXPLORING THE 3D-FTP SOFTWARE

Let's explore some of the cool things about the 3D-FTP software:

It's easy to use because it works almost exactly like Windows Explorer.

When you open up the program to upload a file, it looks almost exactly like Windows Explorer, with your files (hard drive) on the left and your server (hosting account) on the right.

To get into your server on the right, just click the "WWW" folder or "public_html" folder, like this:

Anytime you click on a directory on your server side, it opens that directory.

Let's say you want to upload an image to your server, called "bar.gif".

All you do is select the file(s) on the left that you want to upload (these are on your local hard drive so you can navigate with the UP arrow to get to where your website is saved) then click the button that says "UPLOAD", like this:

That puts the file onto your server in the directory you specified.

Unlike other FTP programs I've used, 3D-FTP keeps you "auto logged" in so you don't time out after 900 seconds of inactivity!

It's frustrating when you're working on your site but keep getting logged out after so many seconds of inactivity, so that's why the "auto reconnect" feature in 3D-FTP is great.

It keeps "pinging" your server to keep your connected until you shut the program down.

3D-FTP offers a "Quick Connect" feature, that lets you connect right to a specific directory on your server.

Instead of having to FTP to the main "root" directory, you get a list of the most frequently accessed "sub folders" so if you want to go into /www/whatever, it's accessible in 1 click.

It offers a built in "server speed test" that I haven't seen in any other FTP program.

If your server is slow to respond, just click "RUN TEST" to check for problems. The software sends some "packets" of information to your server and times how long it takes to get there and checks to see if any data is lost.

You can see right away whether your server is good, or a dog.

Here's a test run on triplehosting.com:

And here's a test on another server that's having a LOT of problems right now:

You can see the response below the meter. For the second test it shows you the speed is so bad, they suggest to "forget it". If this continues past 24 hours, we'll change servers. In the past this server tested well though so it appears it's a network issue.