Uploading Your Web Pages with FTP

Note: If your website is configured with the FrontPage Server Extensions you should only use FrontPage to publish your website—do not use FTP. Refer to your order information e-mail for instructions on how to publish to your account with FrontPage.

You can use any FTP program to upload your website. We recommend CuteFTP or WS_FTP for Windows computers, or Fetch for Macintosh computers. Also, most web design software has FTP functionality built in. The settings are the same regardless of the method you use to connect via FTP.

Your FTP site address is your domain name ("example.com" for example); do not add "www." to the front, use only the domain name by itself. Log in with the FTP user name and password you received in your order information e-mail. (Users with reseller accounts should use the user name and password they set up in the Hosting section of the control panel.) You may also see a "Port" setting in your FTP software; this should be set to "21" (the default value for most FTP applications).

The other setting you may see is "remote folder" or "remote directory." This should be set to "/httpdocs". Those using stand-alone FTP software should switch to the /httpdocs folder after logging in and upload their files there.

FTP Folders

You will see several folders when you log in via FTP. Most of these folders hold utilities and other information the server needs to support your account, and you should ignore these folders. The most important folder is the httpdocs folder; this is where all of your web pages and graphics go. Below is a description of each folder. Note that not all of the folders may appear, dependent on how your account is configured:

• anon_ftp - This option is currently not used by Intelligent Hosting.
   
• bin - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• cgi-bin - If you have Perl scripts you will need to upload them to this folder.
   
• conf - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• error_docs - This is where your custom error documents ("404 Not Found" for example) for your site are stored.
   
• etc - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• httpdocs - This is the most important folder in your FTP directory. This is where you upload all of your web pages, graphics, etc. If you are using website-building software that has built-in FTP functionally, you will need to set the upload directory (which may be called "remote directory" or "remote folder") to /httpdocs.
   
• httpsdocs - If you have SSL enabled for your account, you will need to upload any pages that need to be transferred securely in to this folder. Pages in this folder will appear if the visitor goes to https:// and your domain (https://www.example.com for example; note the "s" in https). Note that pages in your httpdocs folder will not be accessible if the visitor goes to https://www.example.com, and conversely pages in your httpsdocs folder will not be accessible if the visitor goes to http://www.example.com (without the "s" in http).
   
• lib - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• pd - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• private - This folder is only accessible via FTP and can be used to hold data you would not want to put in the /httpdocs folder. Most users can ignore this folder.
   
• statistics - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• subdomains - This is where files for your subdomains are stored. Note you will only be able to access the folder of subdomains that you have configured to share the same FTP space as your main domain.
   
• tmp - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• usr - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• var - This folder stores support data for your account. Do not upload files to or delete files in this directory.
   
• web_users - This option is currently not used by Intelligent Hosting.