FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

[Doug Nelson]

Ok, it's been pointed out to me several times recently that not everyone knows how to FTP files. This is a very important task that anyone working with large files should know, so I've started this thread to make sure everyone does know.

FTP=File Transfer Protocol

There's a million different FTP apps out there. The WORST one is your web browser. Windows users can look here and perhaps someone can recommend a good place for Mac users to look.

If nothing else it's a easier way to nab all the Adobe support files instead of one at a time off the web

There WILL be a test (notice, no smiley)

This is important folks, get an app, learn to use it. At bare minimum you should know how to set it to a custom port, passive vs. non-passive mode, ascii vs. binary xfer mode, and how to save account preferences.

I like FTP Voyager, but CuteFTP and WS-FTP are also very popular. They look different, but all do the same things.

For Mac users I hear Fetch is good, but obviously we need someone to help here.

Get an app and play with it before asking questions. It's all a lot easier than it sounds, and a necessary piece of knowledge for folk like us (honest).

Old hands at this feel free to chime in and help the others out.

[jeaniesa]

Great idea Doug! For those of you who don't have an FTP client, if you're a home or educational user, you can get WS FTP LE for free. I've found it to be straight forward and easy to use and a definite advantage when needing to transfer large files.

Jeanie

[DJ Dubovsky]

We have the WS FTD Pro but it hasn't been installed on my computer yet. Guess I have something new to learn.
DJ

[Ed_L]

I downloaded the FTP Control, as well as two others, since computers and I aren't the best of friends. Not knowing anything about FTP, I downloaded the one free client, which doesn't appear too exciting. I also downloaded the WS FTD LE, which I haven't opened yet. I printed out some of the help files for FTP Control, and it seems to be straight forward, and pretty easy to use, although I haven't tried to use it yet. This is the one I'm going to go with, at least until I get my feet wet. It looks like a good one for beginners.

Ed

[Ed_L]

I'm like a first grader in post-grad school. Everything is brand new to me. Is it possible that we could have a "testing ground" for FTP? Or maybe a very basic tutorial for getting started?

Ed

[Doug Nelson]

Here is a basic tutorial for the WS-FTP free version.

[Ed_L]

Thanks Doug. I'll give it a shot.

Ed

[winwintoo]

Fetch for Macintosh users...

Macintosh users can download a 15-day free trial of Fetch from here

After the free trial, the price is $25 USD.

I have used Fetch quite a bit and sprung for the license. If anyone has experience with any others, please post them.

Margaret

[Ed_L]

I took the tutorial Doug gave me, and it seems pretty easy. I downloaded and uploaded a file through the tutorial. So I tried to connect to an FTP site, just to see if I could do it. No luck. About the only thing I could find in the search engines for FTP is mp3 files and software files, so I decided to try one of those sites. Taking the first artist from our music thread, I entered "Patsy Cline" in a search. Here's the first result I got:

ftp://oth:[email protected]/C:FTP Root/-=([ mp3 p])=-/patsy cline-back in baby's arms.mp3

After reading a bunch of ftp basics, my understanding is that the username would be "oth", and the password would be "oth". Is that correct? For the address, I typed the whole thing in the box. No luck. Then, I typed everything after the "@" into the box. Still got a failed connection. I'm getting pretty frustrated after spending so much time trying to understand it. What am I doing wrong? If I can't connect to one of these sites, how can I connect to this one? For what it's worth, I'm using WS_FTP95 LE.

When I entered "@", then an "o" in the address, it came out as a smiley!

Ed

[Doug Nelson]

That's a browser address, not an FTP client address. Start your client, enter get.2y.net (the FTP address) and enter oth as the username and password, then hit connect (assuming that info is correct).

Not very easy to FTP unless you know where you're going. It's not a browser like the web.

[jeaniesa]

Ed,
Unfortunately, I don't quite follow what you're trying to do, but I'm going to try to find something that's a little more straight forward than whatever it is you're trying to do. It shouldn't be so confusing.
Jeanie

Well, it looks like Doug has more of an idea how to decipher that line than I do!

[Ed_L]

Jeanie,

The only thing I'm trying to do is to see if I can actually connect to a real site. I'm not really interested in downloading anything specific, or upload anything specific.

Doug,

Thanks for the suggestion. Does anyone else have trouble like this? I'm not sure I should be taking up space with these questions here. If not, please set me straight. Obviously, I didn't connect when I tried it, but why does it tell me that I'm connected, and just below that, it tells me that it failed? Does anyone know of a place that will explain all these little things?

Ed

[jeaniesa]

Ed, I was just out for my morning hike and as I was hiking I thought to myself, "I wonder if Ed figured out his FTP problem? I'll have to check in with him when I get back." And when I checked, here was your "update".

I think (but I'm not sure) that the "connected" indication is just that it was able to make contact with the remote machine (kind of like a "ping", if you're familiar with that.) However, when it tried to log in with the userid/pwd that you gave it, that failed, hence the "connection failed."

I wasn't able to find anything on the web, but let me see if I can set something up for you to practice on. Another thought - does your e-mail provider also give you space for a personal website? If so, you should have instructions for how to upload files to that site. (And they don't have to be html or jpg files if you just want to practice - but you probably don't want to upload anything that you don't want other people seeing. )

Jeanie

[Doug Nelson]

Try this:

address: ftp.retouchpro.com
username: rptest
password: 497RFj309fh

Then find the test file

If you can do that much, you know all you need to know about FTP for basic file transfer.

[Ed_L]

Jeanie,

Thanks for your concern. You're a good gal!

Doug,

That actually worked! Is it OK if I send you a file over 4 megs, just to see if it will go? One more question - Will that be the username and password we use from now on? If not, how do we know where to send attachments to? And is it OK to send challenge submissions that way, or would that throw a wrench in your routine?

Ed