WS_FTP for Windows

WS_FTP is a File Transfer Protocol client program. It allows you to connect to file servers and upload, download, or delete files. You will use this program to post your web pages on an HTTP (web) server. You can download an older free version of WS_FTP by going to: http://www.webster.edu/depts/acs/kb/ws_ftple.exe and saving the .exe file on your computer.

If you would like to learn about the newest version of WS_FTP, WS_FTP Home, visit http://ipswitch.com/products/ws_ftp/home/index.html to find pricing and download a free trial version.

Install

Double-click on the "wsftple.exe" file that you downloaded, and follow the instructions for installation.

Getting Ready: Case-Sensitive File Names

Before posting your web page, your entire site should be in a directory, a folder, or on a disk all by itself, separate from any unrelated files. See the example that follows.

Web servers are case-sensitive. This means that " Index.html" is a different file than "index.html" on a web server. So, before you upload your web page files, you must make sure that the file names on your disk exactly match the file names in your HTML code.

Ideally, everything should be in all lower case. If you change folder or file names, you must make the necessary changes throughout your HTML code and make sure that file names you choose are consistent.

Launch and Upload

1. Go to the Start menu, under Programs, and launch WS_FTP.

If the Session Properties window does not appear automatically, click the Connect button. You may also need to click the “New” button.

Profile Name	Descriptive name chosen
Host Name/Address	Your email server name. To find out your email server, go to http://connections.webster.edu/myaccount and log in with your Connections username and password. After logging in, click on the link that says “Settings for my desktop e-mail program”. Whatever is listed for incoming and outgoing server will be your host name/address.
Host Type	Detected automatically
User ID	Your Connections ID (everything before @webster.edu in your email address)
Password	Your Connections Password

The host window should appear.



a. This is the local system.  In other words, this is the side where all of the files stored on your PC are located.

b. This is the remote site.  In other words, this is the side where all of the files on the server are located.  To upload files, you want to send files from the local system to the remote site. In the right pane, you can see all the files that the server uses to keep track of your e-mail. Do not disturb these files! So that the server can distinguish our HTML documents from these other files, HTML documents should go in a special directory. Webster University's student web server uses the name public_html, so that is what we will use for this example.

c. This button will copy files from the server onto your local computer.

d. This button will copy files from your local computer over to the server. You can check the “Auto” checkbox near the bottom of the window.

1. Double-click on the public_html folder icon on the remote (right) side. You should see an empty directory (if this is your first time uploading files), ready to receive your files.
2. Now, you must set the local directory to the spot where your files are stored. Click on the CHGDIR button in the left (local) pane and enter c:\ (to access your hard disk drive) or a:\ (to access your floppy disk drive) or whatever else drive you may be trying to access and navigate to your HTML files.
   
   OR you can click on the down arrow under Local System and choose a location
   OR you can click up arrow with 3 dots beside it to navigate through the folder structure upwards
   
   
3. Highlight each of your files by clicking on them once. Hold down the CTRL key to add files to the highlighted group. Your local window should look like the example below.
   
   
4. Click the Right arrow between the Local System and Remote System to transfer your files.
   
   
   
   When you are finished, you should see the files you choose on the right side of your FTP window as well as the left, signifying that the transfer was successful.

Viewing your Web Files

1. Launch your favorite browser, and type in this address:
   http://servername.webster.edu/~userid
2. Replace “servername” with your e-mail server name as looked up in Step 2 of the above section Launch and Upload.  Replace "userid" with your Connections ID (everything before @webster.edu in your email address). Be sure to include the tilde (the ~ key, just to the left of your 1 key on most keyboards; hold down Shift and press ~) before your Connections ID.
   
   
3. If your web page does not come up, make sure that:
   
   You typed the address correctly, as above
   You have a document named
   index.html, all lower case, on the server index.html and all your other files are inside a correctly named directory ("public_html") on the server. If you do not have an index.html file you will see only a listing of the files and folders you have uploaded to the public_html directory.