Bruce's Web Lab

Transfering your web-site files to your web server

• What You'll Need to Know
• Instructions for Macintosh Users
• Instructions for Windows Users
• How FTP Addressing Relates to Web Site Addressing

Once you've created the files that make up your web site, you must transfer them from your local computer to your web server using an ftp client.

Instructions for Macintosh Users

One of the most popular Mac ftp clients is Fetch. You can download the most recent version from Dartmouth College.

Once you have Fetch installed on your computer follow these steps:
(NOTE: These instructions work for Fetch 3.0.3 The instructions may be slightly different if you are using a different version.)

See What You Need to Know, below, for the meanings of some terms.

1. Connect to the Internet
2. Launch Fetch
3. The first time you launch Fetch, you'll want to change a few settings:
• Select "Preferences" from the "Customize" menu
• Select the "Upload" tab
• Set the "Default non-text format" to be "Raw Data"
• Make sure "Add .txt suffix to text files" is not checked.
• Make sure "Add .bin suffix to binary files" is not checked.
4. To connect to your web server, select "New Connection" from the "File" menu.
5. In the "Host" field, enter the name of your web server.
6. In the "User ID" field, enter your web login.
7. In the "Password" field, enter your web password.
8. What you enter in the "Directory" field will depend on your web server. Typically, you enter "pub_html", "html", or leave it blank.
9. Click on "OK".
10. A window will open, showing the contents of your directory on your web server. There are several ways to put files from your local computer into this remote directory on your web server:
• Press the "Put" button, OR
• Drag and drop files into the remote directory
  If you use this method, you can drag and drop more than one file at a time. Be sure "Automatic" is selected on the main Fetch screen; that way Fetch will correctly handle both text and graphics files. OR
• Select the "Put Folders and Files" command from the "Remote" menu.
11. To bypass steps 4 thru 8 above, you can create a "Shortcut" to your web server using the "New Shortcut" command from the "Customize" menu. (New versions of Fetch use an "Add Bookmark" command.) Then you'll connect by selecting the shortcut from the "Open Shortcut" menu under the "File" menu.

Instructions for Windows Users

One of the most popular Windows ftp clients is WS_FTP Pro, by Ipswitch (www.ipswitch.com). Here is a direct download of the free version (WS_FTP LE 4.6) for non-commercial use: Ipswitch WS_FTP LE.

Once you have WS_FTP installed on your computer, follow these steps: (NOTE: These instructions work for WS_FTP 95.01.22. The instructions may be slightly different if you are using a different version.)

See What You Need to Know, below, for the meanings of some terms.

1. Connect to the Internet.
2. Launch WS_FTP.
3. In the "Host Name" field, enter the name of your web server.
4. In the "Host Type" field, select "Automatic detect".
5. In the "User ID" field, enter your web login.
6. In the "Password" field, enter your web password.
7. What you enter in the "Remote Host" field will depend on your web server. Typically, you enter "pub_html", "html", or leave it blank.
8. To save these settings, enter a name in the "Profile Name" field and press "Save". (First check the "Save Password" box if you also want WS_FTP to remember your password.)
9. Press "OK" to connect to your web server.
10. This brings up a box in which your "Local System" is shown on the left and your directory on your web server (i.e. the "Remote System") is shown on the right.
11. On the right, select the local directory that contains your web files. Use the arrow that points to the right to move these files to your directory on your web server.

What You'll Need to Know

For the above FTP procedures, here's the information you'll need, with my Cabrillo College class used as an example:

To FTP You'll need to specify:	Example:	Notes:
Host Web Server	ftp.cruzio.com	Also known as: Host, host name, machine, server,
Web Login	caos190	Also known as: account, name, login, user ID; Note: WS_FTP means something else by "account".
Password	*****	Get this from your server administrator [Cabrillo students get this from me.]
Directory	pub_html/spring-99/	Most web server accounts have a pub_html directory, which is where all web site files are placed. If you want to connect quickly, also include the sub-directory to which you're uploading (spring-99).

How FTP Addressing Corresponds to Web Site Addressing

This URL (Uniform Resource Locator) breaks down to the following segments:

URL Segment Example	What it stands for	Notes
http:	The internet transaction mode	In this case, a web page request
www.cruzio.com	The host web server	At Cruzio, www.cruzio.com and ftp.cruzio.com are names for the same machine.
/~caos190/	An abbreviation for the path on the server that locates the account identified by the web login caos190	This abbreviation shortens the URL and hides the server's overall directory structure. Not used on all Web servers.
spring-99/jdoe/	The directory path within your site	This differs from the directory path used for FTP (above) because you do not include the pub_html directory in a web address.
file1.html	The name of the HTML file for the web page being addressed.	This is what you have uploaded.