--------------- TIP OF THE WEEK - Using FTP, Part 1 - (New) --------------- We're finished with our two series explaining the features of Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer. We hope you have enjoyed them and learned a bit more about these two programs. You can find all the articles on our site and they run from Jan. 22 back to Oct. 23, 1998. http://www.erols.com/erols/news/index.html NEW SERIES This week we're going to begin a new series on using FTP and if you've never used it before, watch out! You're in for a steep (but hopefully easy to understand) learning curve. WHAT IS FTP? FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and it is the preferred method for transferring files. Many of you are probably familiar with transferring files by attaching them to an e-mail. While this usually works well with small files, and by small we mean under 500K, when you deal with larger files many e- mail programs "time out" or fail to download the e-mail. That is because they weren't designed to handle large file transfers and that's where FTP steps in. HOW DOES IT WORK? The concept of using FTP isn't much different from sending and receiving e-mail - both are sending information from one location to another. Like e-mail, you need a program in order to send and receive files. Some of the more popular programs are: WS_FTP, CuteFTP, and Fetch. Like e-mail, you need a server to transfer the files and our FTP server is: ftp.erols.com or ftp.rcn.com. (It doesn't matter which one you select.) And finally, like e-mail, you need something to send or receive like a file. YOU'VE PROBABLY USED FTP AND NEVER KNEW IT! If you have ever downloaded a file or uploaded a page to your web space, you've used FTP. If you have clicked on a link and had the window appear asking you where you want to save a program, you've used FTP. For example, if the link in the next paragraph is "clickable" and you click on it and save the file, you've just used FTP. ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Products/Windows/Windows95/CDRomExtras/OtherUti lities/olddos.exe NOTE: We don't recommend you actually install the file listed here. This is provided just as an example. That is about as far as we are going to go this week. Next week, we will show you how to use your browser (yes, your browser) to FTP files to your web space. A site that has some good information about FTP is listed here. http://www.webteacher.org/winnet/ftp/ftp.html --------------- TIP OF THE WEEK - Using FTP, Part 2 - (New) --------------- This week we are continuing our series on learning about FTP and how to use it to send and receive files. If you missed last week's Tip, you can find it here: LET'S FIND YOUR WEB SPACE All customers get 1MB free webspace that is created automatically when you connect to the FTP server ftp.erols.com or ftp.rcn.com You can find your space if you type the following line into the Address or Location bar of your browser and hit the Enter key on your keyboard. If you are an Erols customer, your space will be located here: http://www.erols.com/smith (Replace smith with your own user id.) If you are an RCN customer, your space will be located here: http://users.rcn.com/smith (Replace smith with your own user id.) Now, if you get an error message like "We're sorry ... The website or webpage you were attempting to access does not exist on our servers ..." you'll need to create your space using the steps below. NOTE: Secondary e-mail accounts and dial-only accounts do not have webspace. CREATING YOUR 1 MB OF WEB SPACE If your space has not been created yet, simply type the following line into the Address or Location bar in your browser and hit the Enter key. In this example, your user id is: smith and your password is: 123456. You will replace these with your own information. ftp://smith:123456@ftp.erols.com OR ftp://smith:123456@ftp.rcn.com If you entered the information correctly, you should see a page something like this: Index of /smith Name Last modified Size Description Index.html 05-Feb-1999 20:19 1Kb GETTING OUR SCREEN SET RIGHT Now, everything up to this point has been fairly easy compared to the next steps. First, we need to create a small file to upload. We recommend you use the Windows Notepad or Mac Simple Text to create this file. It doesn't matter what you type in it or what you call it, but you NEED to save it somewhere where you can find it easily -- the Desktop is the best place. Once you have done this, you should still see your browser and the nearly blank white page with the Index.html file on it. If your browser fills your whole monitor, you are going to need to resize it so you can see the rest of your computer's desktop or screen. Here's where we are going with all of this. You need to be able to see the file you just created AND the browser window at the same time - the browser cannot cover the file. DRAGGING AND DROPPING Let's assume you can see both the text file you made and your browser on the same screen. Again, you should see the Index.html file on a white background, NOT the "Under Construction" page you see if you click on the Index.html file. All you have to do now is drag the text file onto the blank white page shown in your browser. You may see the icon or the mouse change into a plus sign. Once you have the file in the white area, just let go of the mouse button. You should see a box appear asking if you want to upload the file to your directory. Click Yes or OK. A few seconds later, you should see your file appear next to the Index.html file and that's it! You have just used FTP to upload a file. WHEW! SO WHAT'S NEXT? Now that you have the file uploaded, how do you let someone else know where it is so they can download it? Easy. If your webpage is located here: http://www.erols.com/smith and the file you uploaded is called: example.txt, you would tell someone that the file is located here: http://www.erols.com/smith/example.txt Basically, all you have to do is add another slash after your username and the exact name of the file. SMALL DRAWBACK Although you can use your browser to upload the file, it's basically stuck there now. There isn't a way to change or delete the file once it's there. Next week, we'll give you some specific examples of how to use an actual FTP program to upload and download files from your webspace. --------------- TIP OF THE WEEK - Using FTP, Part 3 - (New) --------------- This week we are continuing our series on learning about FTP and how to use it to send and receive files. If you missed last week's Tip, you can find it here: http://www.erols.com/erols/news/0299/02-05-99.html CORRECTIONS First, some of the info in last week's Tip was not correct (hey, even the "experts" make mistakes.) If you are using Internet Explorer 4, you cannot drag and drop files from your desktop to your browser window to upload files. Doing this will just load the file into the browser window. This is a feature available in Internet Explorer 5, which is still in beta testing at Microsoft. If you have certain characters in your password, you won't be able to create your space using this command: ftp://username:password@ftp.erols.com Those characters are the colon, question mark and the "at" symbol (: ? @) In order to either create or log into your web space, you need to leave your password out of the link. For example, you would now type: ftp://username@ftp.erols.com. You will then be asked to enter your password and it should log you in. Note: This only works if you are using a version of Netscape. Internet Explorer 4 users don't have this option. IE 4 users have to use an FTP program in order to create your web space, which coincidentally, we will discuss this week. FTP PROGRAMS Any programs discussed below are not endorsed by Erols/RCN Internet. While there are dozens of FTP programs available, space limits us to discussing only a few. FTP programs are designed for one main purpose - to transfer files to and from your computer. We will be describing how to transfer files to and from your 1 MB of free web space. We are going to assume you have already created your 1 MB of space using last week's tip. Please read through the steps below even if you decide to download a different program. Most FTP programs work the same so if you are familiar with one, you can usually pick up another quickly. -------- CUTE FTP -------- One popular FTP program is called Cute FTP, made by GlobalSCAPE, Inc. You can find this program at: http://www.cuteftp.com/ The version of Cute FTP we will be discussing here is Cute FTP V 2.8 for Windows 95/98/NT. The download is approximately 1.2 MB. Once you have downloaded and installed the program, the steps below are how you can configure it to use your personal web space. GETTING CUTEFTP SETUP 1. Run CuteFTP once you are connected to the Internet. 2. You may see a Registration screen. Close it. 3. You should now see a screen called FTP Site Manager with a bunch of folders. Close that screen. 4. You should now be looking at a screen that says "Not connected - CuteFTP 2.8 5. One of the buttons on this screen looks like a lightning bolt. Click once on it. 6. Your cursor should already be in the Host Address box. In that box type: ftp.erols.com OR ftp.rcn.com 7. In the User ID box, enter your Erols/RCN user id. For example, if your e-mail address is: support@erols.com, you will enter just: support. 8. In the Password box, enter your Erols/RCN password. Remember that passwords are case sensitive. 9. Do not worry about ANY of the other settings on this screen. Click on OK. 10. You will see a gray screen appear. Click on the long OK button to close that window. 11. Congratulations! You have now logged into our FTP server! JUST LOOK AT THAT COMPLICATED SCREEN! By now, you may be looking at these dozens of icons, buttons and folders and wondering, "Um, now what?" Don't be intimidated by the screen. You only need to concern yourself with a few of the items here. Let's explain just what you are looking at here. The screen should be divided into two halves. The left side of the screen shows the files on YOUR computer. The right half of the screen shows the files on OUR server in YOUR 1 MB of web space. On the left side, you probably see some of the files actually in the CuteFTP directory on your computer. One of those files should be called "NOTES.TXT" Remember that file. On the right side, you should see one file called "Index.html" GET READY, GET SET, UPLOAD! Remember the NOTES.TXT file on the left hand side? Double click on it and watch what happens. You have just uploaded that file from your computer to your 1 MB space on our server! You should be able to see that file on the right side of the screen. Easier than you thought, huh? NOW WHAT ABOUT DOWNLOADING? Now, look at your Index.html file on the right side. Double click on it and you will see that file being transferred FROM your 1 MB webspace TO your computer. And if you look on the left side of the screen, you will now see that Index.html file. RENAMING AND DELETING FILES Once again, focus on the right side of the screen on the NOTES.TXT file that you uploaded. Let's say you wanted to call that file something else. Right click on the NOTES.TXT file. You will see a dizzying array of options, but one of them should be called Rename. Select that one and another box will appear asking you to choose a new name. Type that new name and click OK. Deleting a file is even easier. Just click ONCE on the NOTES.TXT file and hit the delete key on your keyboard. Voila! The file is gone. DISCONNECTING When you are finished, look back at the top of the window to the right of the lightning bolt. You should see a plug that looks like it's been unplugged. Just click on it and you will be logged off our FTP servers, but you will remain connected to the Internet. the end