Angelfire.com

What is FTP and why would I use it?

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is very handy for uploading files (including your entire website) from your computer to Angelfire, or vice versa. If Uploading several files a few at a time through the Angelfire Web Shell can be time consuming. FTP makes it fast and easy.

How do I get started?

First, let's run through the basic requirements. You will need:

• Your Angelfire account information (login/password).
• The files you want to upload
• To enter into you web browser: ftp.angelfire.com

So basically nothing too fancy.

Filling in your info.

Enter your Angelfire membername and password. Do not enter your domain name, if you have one as part of your hosting with us. Only enter your membername. Your membername appears at the end of your Angelfire URL (https://www.angelfire.com/member/name).

After filling in your information, you should see a view that looks a lot like the files you browse through on your computer. If it's the first time you're logging into the account, you should see a folder called cgi-bin, and an HTML file.

The index.html file is the homepage people will see when they come to your website. So, if you're changing that, be sure your homepage is named index.html.

Now, the uploading part. Open a new browser window, and locate the files on your computer you want to display on your website (including your images). Highlight the files you want to move (you can upload as many as you want at once, or as many as your Internet connection can handle), then simply drag them over to the FTP window. You will see a dialog box that says "copying files" while the files are being copied to your Angelfire directory.

Anything important I should know?

In relation to FTPing the files to your webspace? Yes, here's a few things to keep in mind:

• Your file names and images need to be HTML compliant. That means no spaces or non-alphanumeric characters within their names.
• You can't create subdirectories (folders) in your Angelfire account from Internet Explorer; that needs to be done from the Web Shell or through an FTP client.
• If you delete a file from your Angelfire site, be sure to keep a copy for yourself on your computer. We don't regularly back up member files, so we are unable to restore deleted files. A great reason for using FTP is to back up your website.

Back up? What do you mean?

Back up. You know, an additional copy of your website files stored on your computer. So, in case you delete some files accidentally from your webspace, you can put them back and not have to create everything from scratch.

FTP works the same in both directions. We already went over how to upload the files from your computer to your Angelfire web space. To back up your files, or download them, simply follow the steps in the reverse direction. Locate the files within your Angelfire FTP window, highlight them, and drag them over to the window displaying your computer files.

My friend said I needed to get an FTP program, is that true?

By all means, if you want to use an FTP program, go for it. Here's a link to our our help section, regarding FTP Programs and access. There are plenty of FTP programs out there. There are a number of excellent free ones.

I've already got an FTP program. How do I set it up to work with Angelfire?

Here's the info you'll need to use an FTP program:

Host name: ftp.angelfire.com
User ID: Your Angelfire member name
Password: Your Angelfire password
Directory: Leave this field empty to FTP to your root directory (you can choose a subdirectory later if you wish)