MBA 649 E-Business Strategy --

Ref: FTP
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FTP Reference

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and be used to copy files between computers.  For this class we will be using FTP to transfer information between your computer and the server.  

Copying files from your computer to the server is called uploading or publishing.  This makes files available on the Web or to other users who can access the server.
Copying files from the server to your computer is called downloading.  This allows you to view and edit files on your computer.

Please:

Don't FTP Oracle databases or files used by Oracle.
Follow the File Name rules given below to avoid problems.

Certain Web development tools (Dreamweaver, Front Page, Go Live, etc.) will do FTP transfers for you.  You should have FTP software for troubleshooting and monitoring server files, even if you are using a tool that does automatic publishing.

FTP Software

The ws_ftp95 le program is free and will do FTP transfers from Windows machines.  This program is on many machines at USF or can be downloaded from Ipswitch.com.  

File Names

Follow these rules for file names to avoid problems:

Filenames should include letters (lower case only), numbers, hyphens, and one period before the file extension.  Do not use other characters such as space, underscore (_), slash (/ or \), period, colon, tilde (~), etc. as their meaning and effect varies between systems.
Use only lower case letters because case in file names matters in some operating systems (like Linux or UNIX) and not in others (like Windows).  Some programs convert the case of letters used in file names.  Avoid problems by only using lower case.
File extensions should be .htm (not .html) for HTML files.  This also helps avoid compatibility problems between Windows and Linux.

Updating your personal Web site using WS-FTP

Start ws_ftp or click the Connect button and you will get a Session Properties window.  Enter the following values:

Profile name: your choice of name
Host name/address: usf.rho.net
Host type: automatic
User ID: enter the Account id you were given in class
Anonymous: clear the check box
Password: use the password you were given in class (you may be prompted for the password again)
Save Pwd: please clear this check box if you are using a shared computer
Account: leave this field empty

Click OK, and the program should connect to the server (you may be prompted for your password).  Once you have connected, you will see two windows:

  1. Left: your local Windows machine.
  2. Right: your directory on the Server.  The directory name will be /home/usf/your-account.

Each Window has buttons for Change Directory, Make Directory, etc. that control the directory used for transfers.

Initially your server directory will be empty except for some system files with names beginning with periods.  You can ignore these files.

To upload files to the server, select one or more files in the window on the left and click the right arrow button (-->) to copy the files to the server.

To download files from the server, select one or more files in the window on the right and click the left arrow button (<--) to copy the files to your local system.

 
 

© 2000 by Chuck Ehrlich, all rights reserved.  Comments to webmaster.  Updated on February 07, 2000.