Introduction to WS_FTP
FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is the method by which files are transferred
from one machine to another over the Internet. This protocol will allow
you to upload pictures, documents, and other data from your personal computer
to the central server, and vice versa. WS_FTP provides a nice and simple
interface that will allow you to do this within Windows 3.x.
Software Requirements
The requirements for running WS_FTP are quite minimal. First, you need
to have a IBM-PC compatible computer running Windows 95 or better. Second,
you need to have a network connection. A network connection is either an
Ethernet connection or a SLIP/PPP connection. If you don't know if you
have an Ethernet connection, you can call your department liaison or call
Academic Technology Services at 275-2811. Lastly, you need to have both
the WS_FTP program itself.
Getting Started
Once you have double clicked on the WS_FTP icon,  ,
you will be presented with the following screen:
On the left hand side, there are the files on your PC. You can click on the
double periods ("..") to move up a directory or on a directory name to move
into that directory. The files will show up on the bottom half of the left
side of the screen.
Let's discuss what some of these options do:
- ChgDir
- This option allows you to change the directory on your personal computer
or on the remote machine. When you click on it, it will pop-up a window
that asks for the name of the directory into which you like to move.
- MkDir
- This will allow you to make a new directory on your personal computer's
hard drive or in the directory on the remote machine.
- RmDir
- You can remove a directory permanently. The directory must be empty
before you can delete it.
- View
- In the lower left-hand window is a listing of the files that are
in the current directory of your hard drive. If you select (highlight)
one of those files with your mouse, the
View command will
use an editor, such as Notepad, to view the text in the
file. On the remote machine, the command will download the document
that you highlight and display on your terminal.
- Exec, Rename, Delete
- These commands will allow you to perform some basic file functions.
Exec will
run an executable program. This option is superfluous, and it is not
recommended that you use it. Rename will permit you to
rename a file, and Delete will delete the file.
- Refresh
- As you download files to your hard drive, the lower left-hand window
will keep a tally of what has been downloaded as it happens. However,
there are circumstances in which you might want to "clean up" the window.
Refresh will
do that for you. Likewise, as you upload information to the server,
the upper right window will reflect the changes as they occur.
- DirInfo
- This option returns some extensive information about the directory
that you are in.
At the bottom left corner of the window, you should see the "Connect" button.
Press this button and the "Session Window" should pop up.
If you want to use WS FTP to upload Web pages, and you have an account
on www.rochester.edu, you should type www.rochester.edu in the "Host
Name" field. This will get you to the central Web server. The next field
you need to fill in is the "User ID" field. Type in the userID that you
have been assigned for your account on the central server. The last field
that you will need to fill in is the "Remote Host" field. Type in the
name of the directory where you want to install the files. When all of
the fields are filled in, just click on the "OK" button.
Moving files
When you are where you want to install the files, select the files that
you want to copy to the main server with the mouse. If you want to send
more than one file, you can hold down the "Shift" key and click on a number
of files. Once you have selected your files, just click on the "-->" button
and the files will be installed on the server. That is all there is to
copying (uploading) files to the server.
Similarly, if you need to download information from the central server to
your computer, you can highlight the files in the upper right-hand window and
then click on the "<--" button. Notice that the "-->" and "<--" symbols
point in the direction of where the files are moving. This is a nice way of
visualizing the file transfers that you will need to do.
Other Things You Can Do
You can also manage the files on the server with WS_FTP. If you want to remove
a file on the file server, you can select the file or files from the right side
and click on the "Delete" button. If you are installing a file that will be the
main page for your World Wide Web area, it is recommended that you change the
name of the file that contains your main page to "index.html". Just select your "main
page" and click on the "Rename" button. Rename the file to "index.html".
If you are managing multiple documents, it is wise to put them into separate
directories. The "MkDir" button allows you to create directories on the file
server. Once you have created the directory, you can move into it by either
double clicking on the directory name or clicking on the "ChgDir" button.
Finishing Up
When you are done, you should close the connection to the file server gracefully
by clicking on the "Exit" button in the lower right hand corner of the window.
Download
Questions?
If you have any questions about this document or how to use WS_FTP, feel free
to contact ITS.
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