How to FTP

VirtuaWeb's server requires you to use an FTP program to send your files to our server. If you do not already have an FTP program, you may download one of the following. The one listed below is called WS_FTP by IPSwitch. It is free for non-commercial use. If you plan on uploading business pages, you should either register the program or find another FTP program from TUCOWS. You should also visit TUCOWS if you need software for a Macintosh or any other platform.

The information we will present here is geared towards WS_FTP, however other FTP programs should function in a similar fashion. If you have problems uploading your files with your FTP program, contact support@virtuaweb.net and we will do our best to help you get your site uploaded.

When you first launch your FTP program, you will see a screen similar to the one above.

  • Profile Name - Assign a name to the connection. This is cosmetic, so it does not matter what you put here. Usually you will want to put your website name so that you can easily remember what the connection is for.
  • Host Name/Address - This tells the FTP program what server to connect to. This should be set to ftp.virtuaweb.net as shown above.
  • User ID - The user ID tells the VirtuaWeb server who you are and which domain you need to upload pages to. This should be the main portion of your domain. For example, if you have the domain acme.com, your User ID will be acme. Make sure it is typed in all lowercase letters.
  • Password - This should be the password you chose when you created the account. Make sure it is typed in all lowercase letters.

You can leave everything else blank. Once you have this information filled in, click OK. You shouldn't need to fill anything in again - the program will remember it for you.

After clicking OK, a few things will flash by as the program connects to our FTP server. You will then be presented with this screen:

The screen will show two separate sides with two arrows in the middle. The left side shows what is on your computer. The right side shows what is on our computer. On the right side you will see various folders. The main one to be concerned about is the one that says webroot. This is the folder you will want to upload your pages to. Always double-click on webroot before uploading anything to make sure you do not upload pages to the wrong place.

After changing to the webroot folder on our computer, make sure that the auto box is checked on the bottom right. This lets WS_FTP automatically switch between ASCII and Binary mode when uploading files.

Once you have that done, you are ready to upload! Just pick which files on your computer (left side) you want to send and click on the right arrow, which tells WS_FTP to send the file from left to right, or from your computer to ours. Here are a few things you will want to remember:

  • Call your index file index.html - You will most likely be uploading a page that you want to come up when a person first goes to your page. Make sure this is called index.html.
  • Always switch to the webroot directory - Make sure you go to the webroot directory before uploading, otherwise what you upload will not go on your web site.
  • Contact us if you need help - if you need help uploading your pages, feel free to contact us at support@virtuaweb.net.

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