Home

FTP in Windows

An FTP program (which stands for File Transfer Protocol) is a program that allows you to put copies of files on your computer onto the Internet, and to get files from the Internet and put them on your computer.
Windows 95/98 come with its own FTP program, although it is recommended that a graphic FTP program be used. One of these programs can be easily downloaded, for free, from many sites on the Internet, one example being www.download.com. Once you get to one of these sites, type FTP in the search box. The site should come up with a list of FTP programs. Simply click on one of them and follow the instructions to download and install it on your PC.
We don't recommend any single FTP program, but for purposes of this tutorial, we will use WS_FTP, a very simple yet versatile program.

Using WS_FTP

WS_FTP can be downloaded here.

NOTE : You must be connected to the Internet before attempting to upload/download files.

The following provides the settings you should have established when you start WS_FTP for the first time. These settings can be changed or re-entered in the appropriate boxes.

Profile Name:	BCPL
Host Name/Address:	mail.bcpl.net
Host Type:	Auto Detect
User ID:	jdoe (your username)
Password:	(your password) (only *** will show)*
Account:	Leave Blank
Save Pwd:	Put a check mark in the box
Initial Directories - Remote Host	public_html

Now click OK. If everything was entered correctly, you should see a screen that looks like the one on the right.
The left-hand side shows directories and files on your computer. The right-hand side shows your directory on the BCPL.NET computer.

Uploading files

To upload files to your directory, first you will need to find the files on your computer. If you know the exact folder the file(s) is/are located in, click ChgDir and type in the exact location of the folder (Ex: C:\windows\desktop). If you do not know the exact location, you will need to use the window on the left to navigate. Double-click on the green arrow to go up one folder. Double-click a folder to see its contents. When you find the folder you want to upload, click it once to highlight it.

Next you must find the folder you want the files to go to; in this case, click public_html on the right. The public_html folder is the folder in your directory that is accessible to the world. This is where your web page files go.

Once you have the source file and destination folder selected, click the --> key. The file will be uploaded to your directory, and should appear on the right-hand side.