How to upload and download FTP files

We would always recommend using a proper FTP client software package. There are many available, but we would recommend the open source FileZilla.

In order to access an FTP area you will need three pieces of information:

    1) The name of the FTP server.
    2) Your FTP user name.
    3) The password for the FTP account.

You may also need to know the type of FTP server. It will either be Active or Passive. Most common type is Passive as it works better with firewalls.

Finally, you may need to know where to find (or where to put) files. For example on most web servers you have to go down a level to reach the 'top' of the web server files. This is often so that you can 'hide' important configuration files where they are not accessible by the web server, or because there are other areas to be accessed that should not be exposed to the general public. For example many web servers use directories called htdocs or public_html.

More information

• Comparison of FTP clients on Wikipedia