Finding and Using Free and Easy FTP Programs

Typically, folders and files within your Web server are assigned permissions

of either 644 or 755. Usually, you’ll see PHP files, or files that end with the
.php extension, with permissions set to 644 if the Web server is configured
to use PHP Safe Mode.

This is a very basic look at file permissions because, usually, you will not
need to mess with file permissions on your Web server. In case you do
need to dig further, you can find a great reference on file permissions from
Elated.com at http://www.elated.com/articles/understanding-
permissions.

You may run across a situation where you’re asked to edit and change the

file permissions on a particular file on your Web server. With WordPress

sites, this usually happens when dealing with plugins or theme files that
require files or folders to be writable by the Web server. This practice is
referred to as CHMOD, an acronym for Change Mode. When someone says,
“You need to CHMOD that file to 755,” you’ll know what they are talking
about.

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Changing File Permissions

Each set of permissions has a numeric code assigned to it, identifying what
type of permissions are assigned to that file or folder. There are a lot of
them, so here are the most common ones that you run into when running a
WordPress Web site:

✦ 644: Files with permissions set to 644 are readable by everyone and
writable only by the file/folder owner.

✦ 755: Files with permissions set to 755 are readable and executable by
everyone, but only writable by the file/folder owner.

✦ 777: Files with permissions set to 777 are readable, writable, and execut-
able by everyone. For security reasons, you should not use this set of
permissions on your Web server unless absolutely necessary.

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Changing file permissions

 

Every file and folder on your Web server has a set of assigned attributions, called permissions, that tells the Web server three things about the folder or file. On a very simplistic level, these permissions include:

✦ Read: This setting determines whether the file/folder is readable by the
Web server.

✦ Write: This setting determines whether the file/folder is writable by the
Web server.

✦ Execute: This setting determines whether the file/folder is executable by
the Web server.

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Save the changes you made to the file

Click the Save icon or choose File➪Save.

Upload the file to your Web server.

After you save the file, FileZilla alerts you that the file has changed and asks whether you want to upload the file to the server. Click the Yes button; the newly edited file will replace the old one.

That’s all there is to it. Use the FTP edit feature to edit, save, and upload files as you need to.

When you edit files by using the FTP edit feature, you are editing files in a

“live” environment; meaning that when you save the changes and upload the
file, the changes take effect immediately and affect your live Web site. For
this reason, we strongly recommend downloading a copy of the original file
to your local computer before making changes. That way, if you happen to
make a typo on the saved file and your Web site goes haywire, you have a
copy of the original to upload to restore it to its original state

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Editing files by using FTP

You will run into situations where you need to edit certain files that live on

your Web server. You can use the methods described in the preceding sec-
tion to download a file, open it, edit it, save it, and then upload it back to
your Web server. That is one way to do it. Another way is to use the built-in
edit feature that exists in most FTP client software, by following these steps:

 

1. Connect the FTP client to your Web server.

2. Locate the file you want to edit.

3. Open the file by using the internal FTP editor.

Right-click the file with your mouse and choose View/Edit. (Remember I’m using FileZilla; your FTP client may name it differently, such as Open or Edit.) Usually, the FTP client will use a program that already exists on your computer — such as Notepad for a PC or TextMate for Mac — to edit the files. In some rare cases, your FTP client software may have its own internal text editor. FileZilla uses a program designated for text editing that already exists on your computer

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10. Click the Connect button.

This connects your computer to your Web server. The directory of folders and files from your local computer display on the left side of the

FileZilla FTP client window, and the directory of folders and files on your Web server display on the right side, as shown in Figure 2-5.

Now you can take advantage of all the tools and features FTP has to offer you!

Finding and Using Free and Easy FTP Programs. Transferring files from point A to point B

Now that your local computer is connected to your Web server, transferring
files between the two couldn’t be easier. Within the FTP client software, you
can browse the directories and folders on your local computer on the left
side and browse the directories and folders on your Web server on the right
side.

FTP clients make it easy to transfer files from your computer to your hosting
account by using a drag-and-drop method. Two methods of transferring
files are

✦ Uploading: Generally, transferring files from your local computer to

your Web server. To upload a file from your computer to your Web

server, click the file you want to transfer from your local computer and drag and drop it onto the right side (the Web server side).

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

computer. To download a file from your Web server to your local computer, click the file you want to transfer from your Web server and drag and drop it onto to the left side (the local computer side).

Downloading files from your Web server is a very efficient, easy, and smart way of backing up files to your local computer. It’s always a good idea to keep your files safe, especially things like theme files and plugins

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4. Enter the FTP server in the Host field.

Host is the same as the FTP server information provided to you when you set up the FTP account on your Web server. In the example, the FTP server is ftp.yourdomain.com, so that’s entered in the Host field, as shown in Figure 2-4.

5. Enter the FTP port in the Port field.

In the previous example, the FTP port is 21. Typically, in most host-
ing environments, FTP uses port 21 and this never changes. However,

double-check your port number and enter it in the Port field, as shown in Figure 2-4.

6. Select the server type.

FileZilla asks you to select a server type (as do most FTP clients). Select FTP - File Transfer Protocol from the Server Type drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 2-4.

7. Select the logon type.

FileZilla gives you several different logon types to choose from (as do
most FTP clients). Select Normal from the Logon Type drop-down menu.

8. Enter your username in the Username field.

This is the username given to you in the FTP settings. In the example, the username is lisa@yourdomain.com

9. Type your password in the Password field.

This is the password given to you in the FTP settings. In the example, the password is {W?$s((7Tqi.

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Finding and Using Free and Easy FTP Programs

FTP Username: username@yourdomain.com Password: yourpassword

FTP Server: ftp.yourdomain.com FTP Server Port: 21

Quota: Unlimited MB

Figure 2-2:

Mozilla

FileZilla
FTP client
software.

This is where you need that information. To connect to your Web server via the FileZilla FTP client, follow these few steps:

1. Open the FTP client software on your local computer.

Locate the program on your computer and click (or double-click) the program icon to launch the program.

2. Choose File➪Site Manager to open the Site Manager utility.
The Site Manger utility appears, as shown in Figure 2-3.

3. Click the New Site button.

You can give the new site a name, so type a name that helps you identify the site. This site name can be anything you want it to be because it isn’t part of the connection data you add in the next steps. (In Figure 2-4, you see My Site — original, we know.)

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Connecting to the Web Server via FTP

 

For the purposes of this chapter, we use the FileZilla FTP client (http://
sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla) because it’s very easy to use,
and the cost is free ninety-nine (that’s open source geek-speak for free!).

Figure 2-2 shows a FileZilla client that’s not connected to a server. By default, the left side of the window displays a directory of files and folders on the local computer.

The right side of the window displays content when the FileZilla client is
connected to a Web server, specifically, directories of the Web server’s fold-
ers and files.

If you use a different FTP client software than FileZilla, the steps and look of the software will differ, and you will need to adapt your steps and practice for the specific FTP client software you are using.

Connecting to a Web server is an easy process. Remember the FTP settings you saved from Step 7 in the previous section?

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Finding and Using Free and Easy FTP Programs

Finding and Using Free and Easy FTP Programs

FTP programs are referred to as FTP clients or FTP client software. Whatever
you decide to call it, an FTP client is software that you use to connect to
your Web server to view, open, edit, and transfer files to and from your Web
server.

Using FTP to transfer files requires an FTP client. Many FTP clients are available for download. Here are some good (and free) ones:

 

✦ WS_FTP: www.ipswitch.com/_download/wsftphome.asp

 

✦ SmartFTP: www.smartftp.com/download

✦ FileZilla: http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla
✦ Cyberduck (for Mac users): http://cyberduck.ch

✦ FTP Explorer: www.ftpx.com

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Parameters

7. Set the following settings:

FTP Username, Password, and FTP Server are specific to your domain and the information you entered in the preceding steps.

•  FTP Username: username@yourdomain.com

•  Password: yourpassword

•  FTP Server: ftp.yourdomain.com

•  FTP Server Port: 21

•  Quota: Unlimited MB

Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, the FTP Server Port will be 21 —
be sure to double-check your FTP settings to make sure that this is the case.

At any time, you can revisit the FTP Accounts page to delete the FTP

accounts you’ve created, change the quota, change the password, and find the connection details specific to that account.

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Check the Strength indicator

Check the Strength indicator.

The server tells you if your password is Very Weak, Weak, Good, Strong, or Very Strong (refer to Figure 2-1). You want to have a very strong password for your FTP account that’s very hard for hackers and malicious Internet users to guess and crack.

4. Type the directory access for this FTP user.

Leaving this field blank gives this new FTP user access to the root level of your hosting account, which, as the site owner, you want. So leave this field blank. (In the future, if you set up FTP accounts for other users, you can lock down their access to your hosting directory by indicating which directory the FTP user has access to.)

5. Indicate the space limitations in the Quota field.

Because you’re the site owner, leave the radio button selection to

Unlimited. (In the future, if you add a new FTP user, you can limit the

amount of space, in Megabytes (MB) by selecting the radio button to the
left of the text field and typing the numeric amount in the text box; for
example: 50MB.)

6. Click the Create FTP Account button.

A new screen with a message that the account was created successfully
appears. Additionally, the settings for this new FTP account appear,
which you should copy and paste into a blank text editor window (like
Notepad for PC, or TextMate for Mac users). The settings for the FTP
account are the connection details you need to connect to your Web
server via FTP.

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FTP Accounts page doesn’t display a default FTP user in the Account

If the FTP Accounts page doesn’t display a default FTP user in the Account
Management section, you can create one easily in the Add FTP Account
section:

1. Type your desired username in the Login field.

This creates the username of username@yourdomain.com (where username is the desired username you typed and yourdomain.com is your specific domain name).

2. Type your desired password in the Password field.

You can choose to type in your own password or click the Password
Generator button to have the server generate a secure password for
you. Retype the password in the Password (Again) field to validate.

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FTP account

View the existing FTP account. If your hosting provider automatically sets you up with an FTP account, then you will see it listed in the Account Management section. Ninetynine percent of the time, the default FTP account uses the same username and password combination as your hosting account or the login information you used to log in to your cPanel in Step 1.

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Advanced Steps

1. Log in to the cPanel for your hosting account.

Typically, you’ll browse to http://yourdomain.com/cpanel to bring
up the login screen for your cPanel. Enter your specific hosting account username and password in the login fields and click OK.

2. Browse to the FTP Accounts page.

Click the FTP Accounts link or icon in your cPanel to open the FTP Accounts page shown in Figure 2-1.

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