How to access your FTP account

How to connect to your website with FTP

FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol". For more information on what FTP is, and how to use WS_FTP to upload files, Click here.

When you launch WS_FTP, you will need to provide some information to the program to log on. You can assign any name you like to the "site profile", however you must use the following information to logon properly:

host name (or IP address) ==> darla.gcc.vccs.edu

userid ==> your full last name + your first initial

password ==> first 4 letters of your first name + last 4 numbers of your SSN

I'd strongly recommend that, prior to logging on, you change the "remote" login directory to "public_html". Once you make this change in your login profile, be sure to "save" the profile, or you will have to make this change each time you log in (and you run the risk of forgetting).

What do I do once I am connected?

If you upload files into the root directory, they will not be visible on your web site. All files and subdirectories must be located in the "public_html" directory! This is a very critical point for you to understand. If you are unsure what directory that you are in, then stretch the WS_FTP window to make the window wider, and on the top right, you should get a clearer view of the full directory path. If you have any files in the root directory, you should just remove them, as they are doing nothing other than confusing you about what directory you are in.

Remember that deleting a directory (or folder) on the server can take a while. You may only delete an empty folder, so if your folder has files in it, you will have to go into the folder, delete the files first, and then go back up a directory and delete the folder. If you have folders within folders, this takes even longer.

Once you have verified that you are in your "public_html" directory, you are ready to begin uploading files for everyone to see. Remember, that when someone clicks on the link to your directory, the server will be expecting a file called "index.html" to be your main file. Your index file should be the place wher you put links to all of your projects. Remember to be VERY careful of capitalization, as the server is case sensitive. INDEX.HTML, index.html, index.htm, Index.htm, Index.html are all different files! I strongly recommend that you do not use any capital letters or punctuation (including spaces) in your file names. Also, be careful that you do not call a file "x.htm" and try to link to "x.html", as these file extensions are not interchangeable.

To post a project, I would strongly recommend that you create a new folder for each project you wish to link to from your index.html file. Let's take an example where I need to post my final project to the site. Here are the steps I need to take:

1. Create a new folder - Let's call our final project folder "final". We would use the MKDIR button in WS_FTP to create the new directory. You should now see a folder called "final" show up in the directory listing on the right side of WS_FTP.
2. Move into the folder using WS_FTP - Double click on that folder to move into it. The first time you do this there should be no files inside. You are now inside the "public_html/final" folder.
3. Post my project files to the folder - Copy all your project files from your local PC to the "public_html/final" folder.
4. Move back up to your main folder using WS_FTP - Double click on the ".." folder name (at the top of your file list) to move back up one directory. You are now back inside the "public_html" folder.
5. Create a link to my project - You will need to edit your index.html file (on your local PC) to make a new link that points to the main project file in the folder you just created. Remember to make the link point into the directory to look for the file. If our main project file was called finalproj.html, then the link from our index.html file would be: <A HREF="final/finalproj.html">. Be sure to upload the updated index.html file to the "public_html" directory when the addition has been made.

Now your project should be posted and someone viewing your main page will be able to click on a simple link and go right to the project!

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