How To FTP

A few weeks ago, I asked for a little help with answering a question and I received all sorts of answers. The question was something along the lines of what should I include in a short course on how to create a web page / web site.

There were a few interesting things that came out of it. Some people wanted to know right from scratch what they needed to do. Others were already way beyond anything I could teach, maybe my developer partner can help out there.

Before I release the course, I thought I’d do a few small how-to’s here and there to see if I’m on the right track with what people want.

One of the things I’ve been asked a lot about is what FTP is and how to use it.

And this subject is like most others, if you already know, then you miss the fact that lots of people don’t know. It’s easy because you already know how to do it.

It’s not easy if you don’t even know where to start.

So, I’ve created a short video explaining what FTP is and how to use some free FTP software to connect to your web site. I’ve also shown how to upload and download files using FTP, how to set "permissions" on files, also how to connect and browse your web site using nothing more than your web browser.

http://www.smartdd.com/special/how_to_ftp.php

Finally, if you do already know about FTP and how it works, then there’s something for you too. It’s something I found and I was impressed with it and so I thought it worth mentioning.

It’s not free though, sorry.

On the bottom of that video page, I’ve also placed a link to a powerful piece of software that will simultaneously update multiple web sites via FTP. This is really useful if you maintain lots of mini-sites and you need to update them all at once.

This can happen a lot!

The software integrates with spreadsheet CSV files and takes values directly from the CSV and modifies "tags" inside files and then passes those files directly to the server.

It can also be used to backup by FTP all your web sites files, images, *whatever* overnight.

Really. Clever. Stuff.

You should definitely check it out.

Please feel free to leave any comments below.