--------------- 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.