Directions for the Faculty Staff Web Server

FTP Server access

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a common way of moving files to a Web server. Before starting any Web development, you should familiarize yourself with FTP.

Using Internet Explorer on a Windows machine, FTP can be easily done with your Web browser. See our FTP and Internet Explorer section below.

Please use the password reminder page to obtain your password.

Below are the requisite settings for your FTP software (many HTML editing products -- such as Macromedia Dreamweaver -- now come with FTP capabilities built in):

• Host name (also referred to as remote address): www.faculty.umb.edu
• Your login name (firstname.lastname): This should be the same as your login for the UMB email server. It should be lower case.
• Password: Your directory password (Not the same as your email password. See our password note below)
• Do not specify a host directory (also often called a remote directory)

Your URL is http://www.faculty.umb.edu/[firstname_lastname]

By default, when you connect to the server, you are taken to your folder. This makes for easy uploading and should be compatible with programs such as Microsoft's FrontPage.

Note about FTP passwords

If you need your password reset you must fill out a Project Request Form.

Getting started with FTP

Many HTML editors such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive have FTP access built in. Windows NT and Windows 2000 Operating Systems have command line FTP.

FTP and Internet Explorer

By far the easiest method of handling FTP may be to use your Internet Explorer Web browser on a Windows machine. The reason for this is IE is not only a Web browser but it is also an FTP browser.

Normally, IE communicates via HTTP. However, if you type "ftp://" instead of the "http://" at the start of a URL, you tell IE to attempt to make an FTP connection to the server instead of a normal HTTP one.

To connect to the faculty server, type: "ftp://username@www.faculty.umb.edu/"

You should then be prompted for a user name and password. Make sure the box to "Save password" is checked. Enter your password and click OK.

You should then be connected to the server. The browser window will display all the files and folders in your directory. Use this window as you would other windows in a Windows system; upload files by just dragging and dropping them in the new window. Right-click on items to change names, delete or carry out other actions.

Other tools

There are also a number of inexpensive standalone FTP programs available. We suggest the following:

• PC/Windows -- WS_FTP LE from www.ftpplanet.com
• Macintosh -- Fetch from FetchSoftworks. We encourage you to download version 3.o.3.

Both these programs are free for use for academic purposes (Fetch version 4 is not free). Please be sure to check the latest licensing for each program.

We will walk through using WS_FTP LE as the example.

When you launch the program, you will see in the lower left a button called "Connect." This is standard terminology in FTP software and is the key step in FTPing -- you connect your computer to another one (i.e. a Web server) via the Internet.

If you click Connect in WS_FTP LE, a window will pop up asking for the settings listed above.

The first option, and an option often present is FTP software, is "Profile Name." Sometimes this is written as "Site Name." You can type anything here as it is just something that you and the software use to store the settings for connecting to a server -- think of it as a bookmark. The remaining settings are straightforward except for host type. If your software allows (as WS_FTP LE does) leave this as "automatic detect."

When done entering the settings, click OK, and your computer will then attempt to first find the server on the Internet and then send to it the necessary information to gain access. You should then see something like:

The setup is much the same for most standalone FTP software. On one side (left in this case) of this split screen are your files on your computer. The other side are the files on your Web server. In the case of WS_FTP LE, click on the green arrows at the top left to navigate up to the next level in your file structure. Notice at the bottom of the left window, there are options for accessing the other drives on your computer.

To upload (known as "Put" in FTP) select the file(s) or folder(s) on your computer and then click the right arrow in the middle. Notice how it puts the files and folders in the open folder on the Web server.

To download (known as "Get" in FTP) from your Web server, select the file(s) on your server and click the left arrow. It downloads the file to the folder you are in on your computer.

Command line FTP

Windows Operating Systems also come a command line option for FTP. To use this, open the command prompt (often found under Accessories in the Start menu). Type:

You should then be prompted to enter your user name and password.

Once connected, you will see a prompt like ftp> you upload files by writing "put" and the path to the file located on your computer (referred to as the local path):

You would download a file by writing "get" and the path to the file name on the Web server (often referred to as the remote path).