IM 101 – FTP Clients

One aspect of Website development that seems to trip up a lot of new IMers is the transferring of files up to their Web server. This is done using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Perhaps some of the confusion stems from the numerous varieties FTP clients that are available. Many of the WYSIWYG HTML editors have an FTP client built-in. However, I’ve found some of them awkward to use, especially the one in Nvu.

The other way to transfer files is to use the File Manager feature available in cPanel if your Web host supports it. However, after a few go rounds with this method, you’ll be desperately searching for something much less frustrating for transferring files.

Most people choose to use a stand alone FTP client. Again, the multitude of choices here can be overwhelming. And like word processors, or even operating systems, there seems to be a religious preference among many people towards a particular FTP client.

My commitment is to FileZilla.

It’s open source, it’s stable and well-supported, and best of all, it’s completely free. What more need I say?

The only tricky part may be configuring the host connection settings the first time. All you need to accomplish this is either the URL of your main domain on your hosting account or its IP address. This can be found in both your cPanel and in the welcome email you received when you signed up for your hosting account. You will also need to enter your user name and password for your FTP server, which in many cases is exactly the same as your hosting login and password.

Then just click on the “Connect” button and watch the FTP messages scroll by in the messages pane until you see the folders and files appear in the righthand pane (remote file view on your Web server). From there, things work pretty much the same as with the File Explorer application on your PC. You can drag and drop folders and files in either direction – from your local hard drive or directly from your Web server.

The are other FTP clients – both free and paid, but in the end, all that matters is that you find one that is easy for you to use and doesn’t crash much. And isn’t that about all anyone can ask of any software application?