How to use Fetch FTP
Posted by Lindsayanng on March 14th, 2009I recently wrote a tutorial on how to use FileZilla. The reason I wrote that tutorial first was because MOST people have FIleZilla, and the reason why is because it is free. However, if you have an Apple computer, you will be so much better off and you will save yourself so many headaches if you download and install Fetch FTP from HERE.
The reason I suggest Fetch is because it is plain and simple. Thats it. If you just look at the FileZilla tutorial, you will see how long and drawn out it is. When you read through this, if you haven’t already installed Fetch, you will want to.
Step 1 – connect:
When you click on the Fetch icon after installing it, it will automatically bring you to the connection window. It looks like this:
The graphic is pretty self explanatory, however I will go into detail a little bit more for you “nuts and bolts” type of people.
HOSTNAME: This will be the domain name in which you will be FTPing your content to. So if you have a hosting account with hostmonster, and you have a domain name with hostmonster called mydomain.com then your hostname will be mydomain.com. If you are just an additional user to someone else’s domain, you will just use their domain name that they gave you.
USERNAME/PASSWORD: If you own the hosting account, then this usually is created for you by your host when you actually create the account. It is easy enough to find it if you don’t know where it is. You will just go to your control panel and look for a link that says FTP Accounts and click on there. There you will see a list of all of the accounts for your domain name and you can also add new ones. If you are just a secondary user to someone else’s website, they will supply the username and password for you.
INITIAL FOLDER: This is the folder that you want to land on when you connect. If you don’t have a website at the domain name yet, then you will simple put ” public_html ” which is just the main directory for your website. If you know that you are going to be uploading images to a folder that already exists. For instance, you created a sub folder called “cats” in a folder called “pets” You will put /pets/cats/ as the directory that you would like to land on. If you are a secondary user for this account, and you are given your own folder to use to store content, you will enter your folder’s name like this /yourfoldername/
PORT: This is usually something that you do not have to concern yourself with. When connecting there rarely is an instance where an FTP program will not connect if you leave your port blank. However, when you create new users for FTP login, it gives them a port number, so you can always enter the port number but if you do not know it, you can also leave it blank.
TRY TO CONNECT _ TIMES: You should connect on the first try, otherwise you will set this to a nmber of times to continue to attempt to your host if it does not connect on the first try. I always leave this blank as well, as I know I will connect on the first try.
SHORT CUTS: You can see two little graphics next to the hostname option. They allow you to create short cuts so that every time you connect, you do not have to put in the same information over and over. You can set it to just remember the info and leave the password blank, or to remember the password as well.
Step Two – inside the domain:
Once you are inside, you will see a bunch of folders and files. Make sure that you are in the ” public_html ” folder. Any content stored outside of that folder will not be viewable to the public. If you can see the ” public_html ” folder in the list of folders, double click on it to open it and be in that folder. If you are a secondary FTP user, you will likely only be able to access certain folders and this will never be an issue for you.
The great thing about Fetch FTP, like I mentioned eariler, is that it is super duper easy. When you look at the tool bar, it is likely that you will know what to do right off the bat. But just in case, I created another little graphic for you here:
Many of those items in the top navigation bar are extremely self explanitory, so I will only explain the more complicated ones.
GET: Getting a file is very simple. If there is a file on the remote server that you can see in the file list inside of fetch that you would like to download to your computer, you simply click on the file name and click the get button. This will automatically download the file. SIMPLE
PUT: Putting a file is also simple. This is used if you have files on your computer that you want to upload to the website. When you click on put you will see a normal file browser. You will simple browse to the file you would like to put and click OK in the browser. When it is complete you will be able to see the file name in the list of files inside of the folder that you are currently in. If you want to put a file in a different folder, simple double click to open that folder, you use the back button to get to a previous directory and double click to open that folder and then click put. When you put a file on the server, you have to already be in the folder that you want the file to be in.
INFO: Is a very valuable tool for web devlopers. By clicking on a file and the clicking on info, you will see a bunch of valuable information. In there you will see the file path, size, the permissions set, and the date modified. Here you can also rename the file if you would like.
And thats it. You officially know everything you have to about using Fetch FTP for getting a website or content onto a server. Now again, compare these instructions with THESE and tell me this wasn’t super easy!
Just another note. If you want to move files from one folder to another, it is as simple as dragging and dropping. The great thing about this is it works just like your file browser on your computer, so everyone who uses a computer should be VERY comfortable with it!
Want to know who is offering this awesome content? Here it is! Someone who is relatively new to web design. I am new enough to still remember how absolutely frustrating it was to try and get anything done in this field, but have also been around long enough to be able to help those that are where I was a year ago.
Aside from web design, I run the office of my dad's engineering business, and do book keeping by trade.
I love my pets.. All 6 cats, 1 peg legged dogs, and 1 hedgehog. LOVE THEM!!
Oh yea, and my husband. He lets me chase my dreams and I let him do the same. We are happy people because of it. Read more from this author
