FTP Instructions

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a way of moving files between your computer and the web server. You may need FTP software in order to do this which can be found free.


Windows: - Windows has FTP built into windows explorer (not Internet Explorer, the actualy windows fileysystem program).
Mac - Mac OS should come with a program called fetch.
Other software: 
Firefox has a plugin called FireFTP which does the job on any platform
FileZilla can be downloaded free from http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client

Connecting:

The FTP protocol requires a host name, user name and password to connect to the server. These details are:
Host: ftp.your-site.com
User: [username as provided] 
Password: [password as provided] 

Windows solution: Very simple, type ftp.yoursite.com into the Windows Explorer address bar (where it normally says C:\users\username for example. A box will pop up requesting the user and password details and you will be in.
Other software: Normally of the file menu there will be an option called 'New Connection' or 'New Site' and there should be obvious places to enter and save these details, and click Connect. Google for 'filezilla tutorial' for example or even search youtube and you'll probably find a video for whatever software you're using if you need more help, or give me a shout and let me know what software you are using.

Transfering files

When you have connected, if you're not using the Windows Explorer method you will normally see two 'file explorer' screens. On the left is your computer, on the right is the server. On the server you need to navigate to the web site folder which is httpdocs. All files and sub-folders in here are part of your web site.

You can put new files up there by finding them on your local computer, selecting them and double clicking or selecting multiple ones and dragging them to the server window.
You can download files in a similar manner.

Windows explorer additionaly supports copy and paste - the best thing to do here is open 2 windows explorer windows, copy the files in one and navigate to the other to paste as you don't get the split screen interface in Windows Explorer.

Previewing
You may need to do a hard refresh in your browser (F5 key or CTRL+R) to force overwritten pages or images to appear as your computer may have cached existing ones.