What is FTP?
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is one way of copying files between your PC and our web servers. It is also the underlying protocol most often used by various web design programs such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage.
Any standard FTP client should work fine with our web servers.
The term FTP client refers to the piece of software on your PC that connects to our servers with the purpose of transferring files.
The files could web pages, photographs, database backup files, pretty much anything required by your website really.
Clients
There are many different FTP clients available varying in price from free upwards. Paid for clients are not necessarily better but may have more features.
Free Download
A free graphical FTP client for Windows is FileZilla:
Click here for the FileZilla project home page
To download, from the home page click on Download. The top of the page will now show the latest releases. Click on Download across from the FileZilla package (this is the one that shows just FileZilla not the FileZilla Server).
Now click on FileZilla_n_n_nn_setup.exe (where n_n_nn is the current version) and download and/or run to install the software.
Quick start guide: Enter the FTP server name we provided in your Welcome email, your FTP user name and password, then click “Quick Connect”. Drag and drop files to or from the server.
Commercial Clients
There are a large number of these available.
Many of the commercially available FTP clients include synchronise features to allow you to easily make sure your PC and the web server files are in sync without having to transfer everything one way or the other.
One popular package for Windows PCs is WS_FTP Pro by Ipswitch. Please click here to visit their web site for more information.
For a simple, beautifully implemented native Mac client we recommend Fetch:
Please click here to visit the Fetch Softworks web site for more information. Fetch is also available from the Apple Mac App Store.
Built-in
Most modern computer operating systems (e.g. Windows, OS X, Linux) will have a command line FTP client included.
Note: this method is only recommended for those users who understand ftp commands.
In Windows you can access the command line FTP client via the Command Prompt (normally found on your start menu in the Accessories section, but can also be accessed simply by Start -> Run and typing command). Then type “ftp” on the command line and press enter.
On a Mac, command line access is via Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal). The command is the same “ftp”.
It is also possible to use Internet Explorer and other web browsers as simple FTP clients, but we wouldn’t really recommended this for serious use.
