Setting Up FTP on Your Hosting Account

Many Web hosts today offer FTP as part of their hosting packages, so just confirm that your hosting provider makes FTP available to you for your
account. In Book II, Chapter 1, we mention the hosting account management interface called cPanel. cPanel is by far the most popular hosting account management software used by hosts on the Web, eclipsing other popular tools, such as Plesk and NetAdmin.

In this chapter, we use cPanel as the example. If your hosting provider gives you a different interface to work with, the concepts are still the same, but you’ll need to refer to your hosting provider for the specifics to adapt these directions to your specific environment.

Mostly, the FTP for your hosting account is set up automatically. Figure 2-1 shows you the FTP Accounts page in cPanel

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Setting Up FTP on Your Hosting Account

✦ View files: After you log in via FTP, you can see all the files that are
located on your Web server.

✦ View Date Modified: You can see the date a file was last modified, which
can sometimes be helpful when trying to troubleshoot problems.

✦ View file size: You can see the size of each file on your Web server,

which is helpful if you need to manage the disk space on your account.

✦ Edit files: Almost all FTP clients allow you to open and edit files through
the client interface, which is a convenient way to get the job done.

✦ Change permissions: Commonly referred to as CHMOD, it controls what
type of read/write/execute permissions the files on your Web server
have.

FTP is a convenient utility that gives you access to the files located on your Web server, making managing your WordPress Web site a bit easier.

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Introducing FTP Concepts

This section introduces you to the basic elements of File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The ability to use FTP with your hosting account is a given for almost every Web host on the market today. FTP is a way of moving files from one place to another, such as:

✦ Uploading: Transferring files from your local computer to your Web
server

✦ Downloading: Transferring files from your Web server to your local
computer

You can do several other things with FTP, including the following, which we discuss later in this chapter: " height="319" width="28">

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Using File Transfer Protocol

 

 

 

Throughout this entire book, you run into the term FTP. FTP (File
Transfer Protocol) is a network protocol used to copy files from one

 

host to another over the Internet. With FTP, you can perform various tasks, including uploading and downloading WordPress files, editing files, and changing permissions on files.

Read this chapter to familiarize yourself with FTP, understand what it is and
how to use it, and discover some free, easy-to-use FTP clients or programs
that make your life as a WordPress Web site owner much easier. If you run
across sections in this book that ask you to perform certain tasks by using
FTP, you can refer to this chapter to refresh your memory on how to do it, if
needed.

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What do I mean by throttle

What do I mean by throttle? I mean they shut it down — they turn it off. Not
permanently, though; maybe for only a few minutes to an hour. They do this
to kill any connections to your Web server causing the spike in CPU use.
They eventually turn your site back on — but the inconvenience happens

 

regularly with many clients across various hosting environments.

 

When looking into different Web hosting providers, ask about their policy
on CPU use and what they do to manage a spike in processing. It’s better
to know about it upfront, than to find out about it after your site’s been
throttled.

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Choosing the size of your bandwidth pipe

 

Be wary of hosting providers that offer things like unlimited bandwidth,

domains, and disk space. That is a great selling point, but what they don’t

tell you outright (you may have to look into the fine print of their agreement) is that although they may not put those kinds of limits on you, they will limit your site’s CPU usage.

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

CPU stands for central processing unit and is the part of a computer (or

Web server in this case) that handles all the data-processing requests sent to your Web servers whenever anyone visits your site. Although you may have unlimited bandwidth to handle a large amount of traffic, if a high spike in traffic increases your site’s CPU usage, your host will throttle your site because they limit the CPU use.

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Choosing the size of your bandwidth pipe

Web hosts are pretty generous with the amount of bandwidth they provide
in their packages. Like disk space, bandwidth is measured in gigabytes (GB).
Bandwidth provision of 10-50GB is generally a respectable amount to run a
Web site with a blog.

Web sites that run large files — such as video, audio, or photo files — gener-
ally benefit from higher disk space compared with sites that don’t involve
large files. Keep this point in mind when you’re signing up for your hosting
account. Planning now will save you a few headaches down the road.

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Choosing the size of your bandwidth pipe

The very same concept applies to the bandwidth available with your host-
ing account. Every Web hosting provider offers a variety of bandwidth
limits on the accounts it offers. When I want to view your Web site in my
browser window, the bandwidth is essentially the pipe that lets your data
flow from your “well” to my computer. The bandwidth limit is similar to the
pipe connected to my well: It can hold only a certain amount of water before
it reaches maximum capacity and won’t bring the water from the well any
longer. Your bandwidth pipe size is determined by how much bandwidth
your Web host allows for your account — the larger the number, the bigger
the pipe. A 50MB bandwidth limit makes for a smaller pipe than a 100MB
limit.

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Choosing the size of your bandwidth pipe

 

Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that is carried from point A to point
B within a specific period (usually, only a second or two). I live out in the
country — pretty much the middle of nowhere. The water that comes to my
house is provided by a private well that lies buried in the backyard some-
where. Between my house and the well are pipes that bring the water to my
house. The pipes provide a free flow of water to our home so that everyone
can enjoy their long, hot showers while I labor over dishes and laundry, all
at the same time. Lucky me!

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Managing disk space

 

Disk space is nothing more complicated than the hard drive on your own

computer. Each hard drive has the capacity, or space, for a certain amount
of files. An 80GB (gigabyte) hard drive can hold 80GB of data — no more.
Your hosting account provides you a

same concept applies. If your Web host provides you 10GB of disk space,

that’s the absolute limit you have. If you want more disk space, you need to upgrade your space limitations. Most Web hosts have a mechanism in place for you to upgrade your allotment.

Starting with a self-hosted WordPress blog doesn’t take much disk space at
all. A good starting point for disk space is between 3-5GB of storage space.
If you find that you need additional space, contact your hosting provider for
an upgrade in space.

limited amount of disk space, and the

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Finding a Home for Your Blog

Think of your Web host as a garage that you pay to park your car in. The garage gives you the place to store your car (disk space). It even gives you the driveway so that you, and others, can get to and from your car (bandwidth). It won’t, however, fix your rockin’ stereo system (WordPress or any other third-party software application) that you’ve installed — unless you’re willing to pay a few extra bucks for that service.

Most Web hosting providers give you access to a hosting account manager
that allows you to log in to your Web hosting account to manage services.
cPanel is perhaps the most popular management interface, but Plesk and
NetAdmin are still widely used. These management interfaces give you
access to your server logs where you can view such things as bandwidth
and hard disk usage. Get into a habit of checking those things occasionally
to make sure that you stay informed about how much usage your site is
using. Typically, I check monthly.

 

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Dealing with disk space and bandwidth

 

Web hosting services provide two very important things with your account:

 

✦ Disk space: The amount of space you can access on the Web servers’
hard drive; generally measured in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).

✦ Bandwidth transfer: The amount of transfer your site can do per month;
typically, traffic is measured in gigabytes (GB).

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Getting help with hosting WordPress

Here is a list of some of those providers:

✦ Blogs About Hosting: http://blogs-about.com (shown in Figure 1-2)
✦ Laughing Squid: http://laughingsquid.net

✦ BlueHost: http://bluehost.com

✦ DreamHost: http://dreamhost.com

 

A few Web hosting providers offer free domain name registration when you
sign up for hosting services. Research this topic and read their terms of ser-
vice because that free domain name may come with conditions. Many of our
clients have gone this route, only to find out a few months later that the Web
hosting provider has full control of the domain name, and the client can’t
move that domain off the host’s servers, either for a set period (usually, a
year or two) or for infinity. It’s always best to have the control in your hands,
not someone else’s, so try to stick with an independent domain registrar,
such as Network Solutions.

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Getting help with hosting WordPress

 

The popularity of WordPress has given birth to Web services — including WordPress designers, WordPress consultants, and (yes) Web hosts — that specialize in using WordPress.

 

Many of these hosts offer a full array of WordPress features, such as an

automatic WordPress installation included with your account, a library of WordPress themes, and a staff of support technicians who are very experienced in using WordPress.

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Finding a Home for Your Blog

 If the technojargon confuses you — specifically, all that talk about PHP,
MySQL and FTP in this section — don’t worry! Chapter 2 of this minibook
gives you an in-depth look into what FTP is and how you will use it on your
Web server; Book II, Chapter 3 introduces you to the basics of PHP and
MySQL. Become more comfortable with these topics because we discuss
them frequently.

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