Because the University will not give everyone their own personal ID and storage on their network, Ive arranged to give everyone some private space that he/she can access using the Internet and a program called FTP.
FTP stands for file transfer protocol and is one of the oldest uses of the Internet, right after e-mail in its antiquity.
This page covers the basics of using either WS_FTP (provided on the University machines) or the command line client provided with Microsoft Windows 95, 98 and NT. If you have some other preferred client, it needs to be capable of doing non-anonymous authentication (which means your generic browser is probably not going to work for downloads, and definitely wont work for submission or other directory maintenance.)
Note the host name: ftp.teach.millard.org. This is how the client knows where to connect.
As the headings indicate, the left side gives you a browser for the local system, while the right side is the remote system (the FTP site). The top window on each side shows the current folder (directory) of each side of the connection.
You navigate from place to place in the file system by double-clicking in the file display window. In addition to files in the current directory, there are some other special lines available:
Change to the parent directory (Back up one level) Change to the indicated drive letter (only available on the local machine) The buttons on the side of the file display are additional features of the file system manipulation: you can easily make folders (and subfolders), as well as delete and rename both files and folders. Sending files from one system to the other is accomplished by highlighting the file on one side, then clicking on the arrow button in the middle to initiate transfer.
Over all, this is one of the nicest FTP clients around.
If youre having trouble getting the program to display the remote system, there could be several problems that have nothing to do with you: the connection could be down, bad or too slow, or if youre trying to use it at work, you may have a firewall blocking FTP transfers. The bottom portion of the main navigation window has status messages, and those messages can give you an idea of the problem(s) you may be having.
If all else fails, PRINT OUT your work and hand it in the old fashioned way!
Normally, you wouldnt want to use the command line for FTP: Its hard to navigate, the commands need to be used from memory, and its hard to see a listing of files in a given folder. The following information has a specific purpose: to help you download your own copy of WS_FTP for use on a home/work computer where a GUI FTP client isnt already installed.
Disclaimer: This is only the procedure for making a connection and downloading the software. You take all responsibility for installing it on your system, especially on a work-based machine. The software has been bullet-proof for every machine Ive put it on, but theres always the possibility of an exception out there!
command
and [Enter].H:[enter]
)cd \temp[enter]
) ftp ftp.ipswitch.com[enter]
anonymous
for the username:
cd /pub/win32
:
bin
:
hash
:
get WS_FTPLE.EXE
(case sensitive!):
quit
to end the FTP session.exit
to close the command shell.