How to connect via FTP and upload/download files

FTP is probably the most convenient way to transfer large number of files or large size files. FTP transfers require the use of an FTP client (program). Popular FTP clients are FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org/), SmartFTP (https://smartftp.com/), CuteFTP (https://globalscape.com/cuteftp/) and Total Commander (https://ghisler.com/). We recommend FileZilla because it is free and easy to configure.

The basic settings, which you need to know in order to connect to your hosting account via FTP can be found in the FTP Manager section of your hosting Control Panel (Site Options > FTP Manager). The settings that you need to connect via FTP are:

• hostname/server: This is usually one of your domains or subdomains but it could also be the shared IP address of the server or your dedicated IP.
• username: This is the FTP login name used for authentication. Your default (first) FTP account has the same username as the one you use to log in to the hosting Control Panel.
• password: Initially the password for your default FTP account is the same as your hosting Control Panel password, but it could be changed via the FTP Manager section.
• port: Usually it is set by default in your FTP client to 21. This is also the port we use for FTP transfers.

If you use your default FTP account to connect via FTP, you should get connected to the www/ directory. Inside this directory are the main folders of your domains.

When you create an FTP account you can restrict the access to a specific directory. For example, if you want to grant access to the /www/my-best-domain.com directory, you must enter “my-best-domain.com” in the access path field. This way the new FTP account would not have access to anything outside the "my-best-domain.com" directory and its subdirectories. You will not be able to access upper level directories like /www/. This way you can create FTP accounts with restricted access for co-workers or other people working on a specific website, without giving them full access to all the files in your account.

Using FTP with Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver requires some additional FTP settings. If you have built your website using Dreamweaver, you will have to enter a "Host directory" in addition to the FTP server, the username and the password. The "Host directory" specifies the location where Dreamweaver should upload the files relative to the directory, which you get connected to using the FTP account in question. So if you use your default FTP account, which connects to the www/ directory and you want to publish your website to www/my-best-domain.com/, you should enter the following as "Host directory": my-best-domain.com/.