Please pity the world's biggest noob!

I realize this is really too rudimentary to bother people with, and clearly I've no business dabbling in Computer Stuff, but I am stuck with seeing this project through, and have to throw myself on the mercy of the forums. I finally got a website created, using a trial of CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer (5.9.4, on windows XP Home ed, if that's relevant), and now I'm trying - and failing spectacularly - to upload and publish the site. The email I got from Dreamhost after registering my domain says:

"When you have your software and are ready to connect, you will need to provide it with a few settings: your username, password, and where you want it to connect to.

Hi Mia,
I looked at dreamhost, if you search their forums it will give you the info you need. (FTP).
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/FTP#How_do_I_login.3F

see if this helps!

Thanks Bruzer, but no, that didn't help either. The configuration from that wiki (ftp server: serverName.dreamhost.com user name: yourUserName password: yourPassword directory: /_) was one of many I tried with no success. The ironic part of all this is that when I took on this project, I was sure it would be the -building- of the site that would sink me, not the presumably simple upload/publish step. Argh!

Mia,

Did you try this option:

FTP server: nightwing.dreamhost.com
Username: myusername
Password: mypassword
WWW folder: (leave this blank)

Yep, that was one of the original attempts, results in same error message, but thank you for taking the time to reply.

Have you tried a test login using a dedicated FTP client, to make sure the problem isn't isolated to the VSD FTP set-up? You could try the free one they offer here, or FileZilla. That attempt may also generate more useful error messages that could tell you exactly which bit of info the server doesn't like.

I'm not familiar with Dreamhost but this bit from their wiki seemed to touch on the area most ripe for data conflicts:

To add to everyone else, do you have a firewall or anti virus running in the background, if so try disabling them to see if it works at that point, and you could try passive mode too. If none of these ideas work, you could try using coffeecups free ftp and give it a shot or I can try to help you in email, which I would give you a server to upload to to see if it works. support@kellyinfo.com