FTP Tutorial

This tutorial explains how to use FTP to transfer files between your computer and a web server. The most common reason for wanting to do this is to upload web pages (and other files) for a website.

Here's what you will need:

• An FTP client. This is a software application that handles the transfers. You can use Internet Explorer to do this but it's not as good as having a specialist application. Good FTP clients cost money (usually under $US50). There are also free FTP clients available for download.
• The login details for the web server. Your web hosting service should provide these.

This tutorial includes the following:

• How FTP Clients Work
• Choosing an FTP Client
• Connecting to the FTP Server
• Using IE for FTP

Before we go any further, it's important to have at least a basic understanding of how websites work and how web folders exist on the server. If you don't, try our short WWW Primer first.

Next Page: How FTP Clients Work