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1. Getting Started

The first thing you have to do in order to use Free FTP is set up your server profile. You can do this by clicking File > Servers. This will open the My Sites window. Click the Add button.

This will open the Server Profile Wizard. Follow the five steps.

Profile Name: This is the nickname of this connection. You can literally name it anything you want.

Username: This is your FTP username. This is assigned to you by your hosting provider. You can click Anonymous if your FTP server allows anonymous connections, but most likely it does not.

Password: This is your FTP password. This is assigned to you by your hosting provider. You can click Save Password so you don't have to retype it every time you connect.

Hostname: This is the TCP/IP hostname of your FTP Server. It should be in the form of "ftp.yourdomain.com". Do not include "ftp://" or any directory name such as "ftp.yourdomain.com/mysite" because these are invalid TCP/IP hostnames. It is up to your hosting provider to assign your FTP server hostname, so you will need to find out from them what it is.

Note: It can also come in the form of an IP address.

Some examples of a correct hostname:

ftp.mysite.com
24.24.100.100

Some examples of an incorrect hostname:

ftp://ftp.mysite.com
ftp.mysite.com/mysite

Default folder on host:

This is the folder where you will be brought immediately after connecting. You must put the full path in here.

For example, if you keep all your HTML files on your FTP Web server in the directory "mysite/webfiles/public_html" then you can put this as your default folder and it will take you here immediately. Remember that you must put the entire path name. If you just put in "public_html" it would not work, unless on your FTP Web server you actually had a "public_html" folder in your root directory.

Proxy Server: If you use a proxy server to connect to the Internet, you may need to use a proxy to FTP as well. If you do use a proxy, click Yes and enter all your proxy information. If you don't, just click No.

Once you have set up the profile you should see it listed in the My Sites window now.

You have a few more options you can select about your connection at this time.

Passive Mode: If your Web server uses passive connections, you will need to check this option to connect.

Secure: If your Web server allows or requires SSH connections, you can check this option to enable it.

Use Noop: Checking this option will keep your connection alive without any activity. For instance, if you connect to your FTP Web server and don't do anything in a certain amount of time it may disconnect you for inactivity. With Use Noop checked, it will try to keep your connection alive for a longer amount of time.

Initial Local Folder: This is the folder that will appear under the My Computer tab after you connect. Some prefer to put the directory their Website is in on their local computer in this field, so that right after you connect, you will be in the appropriate directory without needing to browse.

Comment: You can put any comments about this connection here.

After you have your connection set up, click Connect and it should connect you to the FTP server.

If you already have a connection set up just click the Servers button and choose which connection you want to connect to.

2. Transferring Files

Once you have successfully connected to your FTP server you can now begin either uploading or downloading files.

You should see two main windows in Free FTP: My Computer and My Site. My Computer shows the local files on your PC. My Site shows the files on your FTP server.

To upload, you will be transferring files or folders from your computer to the FTP server. Select the files you want to upload in the My Computer window. To select a file, left-click it. To select multiple files, you can drag a box over them or click one, hold down Shift, and click another. All the files between will be selected.

Whatever the current folder you are in under the My Site tab is where the files will be uploaded. In order to upload files where you want them, browse to the folder you want them uploaded to on the FTP server, highlight the files under My Computer, and then click Upload.

To download files, the same concepts apply. Highlight the files or folders you want to download under the My Site window, browse to the folder on your PC where you want the files to be downloaded to, then click Download.

When transferring files, they are either transferred in ASCII or binary mode. You can let Free FTP automatically decide which it should be by leaving the transfer mode to Auto. Alternately, you can choose ASCII or binary if you need.

To delete files, right-click the files and choose Delete.

3. File Permissions

Any files that are on a FTP server have something called Permissions. Permissions are what tell the FTP server how it should treat this file. To access a files Permissions right-click on it and choose Permissions.

You can change the way the server treats this file, depending on certain user groups. The groups are Owner, Group, and All Users.

The different permissions you can set for the files are Read, Write, and Execute.

The only time you should need to change any permissions is if you are installing any sort of CGI or other scripts into your Website.

You may be instructed to set a certain file to permission 755, which is:

Owner: Read, Write, Execute
Group: Read, Execute
All Users: Read, Execute

This is the normal setting for a CGI script in your Web server.

To find out more about how File Permissions on Web servers work, you can read some tutorials available on the Internet: Search Here