If you are entering your FTP settings in Website Access Manager and cannot see the folders on your server when you click the Browse button to select your home directory, you'll need to take a few extra steps to use the software. Don't worry! This is a pretty standard issue, and it has to do with these things on your server called symbolic links.

Every hosting provider does things differently. Some hosts give you a straightforward server root folder: public_html, www, /, something like that. But other hosting providers may not make things that easy for you. Their server root folders might actually be some super-long, bizarre server path: var/home/httpd/docs/www. That would be a total headache for you to have to type, though, so instead they use a symbolic link with a short, straightforward name (e.g. www) that points to the actual, convoluted file path. Symbolic links are kind of like the desktop shortcuts you have on your computer — they save time and make things easier for you.

This is all well and good until you try to access your server with an external program like Website Access Manager. Programs like Website Access Manager can't follow symbolic links, so they come up blank when you try to do things like locate your server root.

Here's how you correct the problem. First, log into your server control panel and create a new FTP username and password. Next, set the default home directory for this new user to the actual folder where your website files are stored. Since servers are all so different, we can't give you specific instructions for how to do this. Your best bet is to contact your hosting provider for more information about how to do this.

When you have finished setting up this new account, open up Website Access Manager and enter this information in the FTP Settings window. When you click Browse, the folders and files in your server will appear normally.