These days, WordPress can be installed, updated and maintained without ever opening an ftp (I’ll explain later) program or uploading files to your server (where your website lives) through your website host’s control panel. These days, you could – within reason – completely manage your own blog or website without the help of a website developer or virtual assistant.

But some tasks still do require access to the server. This is where a number of my clients get stuck. Although there are fancy plugins that allow you to install other plugins, sometimes they break or don’t work. In most circumstances, installing new themes still requires access to your server (some website hosting companies make that easy through a control panel). Sometimes, you need to move pictures and files from your computer to your server and you don’t have all day.

This is where ftp comes in. Ftp stands for file transfer protocol. It is not a complicated process or idea at all. It’s just an acronym, which makes it scary, right? If you can move files from one folder on your computer to another, you can use ftp.

Why You Need to Learn This

So we’ve covered some of the very basic reasons you would need to use ftp to access your server. Let’s look at a very short list (you can add your own as you start to get a better understanding):

1. You want to install a new WordPress theme and your website host doesn’t provide a way to do it
2. You need to remove files from your server that are outdated or problematic.
3. You need to upload a bunch of photos or large files and the File Manager on your website host control panel takes way too long.
4. You need to install the WordPress plugin installer plugin  (go figure – you need ftp to do this first!)
5. After someone’s installed the plugin installer plugin, you need to install a plugin that is NOT in a .zip file.
6. You need to upload a new logo or banner.

The reasons go on and on. Here’s what you could do: you could hire a website developer or virtual assistant to do it for you and pay them, or you could take the next 10 minutes to learn FileZilla and start managing files on your website server yourself.

How to Use FileZilla

I’ve used a few different ftp programs and I believe that FileZilla is the easiest to use. This is a matter of opinion, entirely. But since the assumption is that you aren’t using anything right now, go ahead and try FileZilla and once you understand how it works, you can shop around for something better for you.

What You Need

You’ll need the ftp login information – this is a host name or address, username and a password. Sometimes you will also have a port number. This information is usually given to you WITH your website information. It comes from the hosting company. For me, it’s always been included in the email that I get whenever I purchase new hosting plans. If you have absolutely no idea where this info is, just call your hosting company and ask them for it.

Tips:

• the ftp address is usually ftp://yourdomainname.com/org/net, etc. This is not always the case. If your domain name isn’t linked to your hosting account yet, that won’t work. In that case, you’ll usually have an ftp address that includes your IP address. Again, if you don’t know what it is, call your hosting company.
• the port number is usually 21.

Ready? Let’s move on.

First, download FileZilla. (Note: this is the latest version as of the date of this post. To see what the very latest version is and make sure you have it, visit http://filezilla-project.org). FileZilla is a free program. It allows you to move files from your computer (local site) to your website (remote site).

After you’ve downloaded and installed FileZilla, open it up (it will usually open up right after you install it). This is what you will see (click the image to enlarge it):

You’ll notice a left side box labeled local site. This is your computer. You’ll also see a right side box labeled remote site. This is your website (once you connect, that box will fill with files and folders).

There are TWO ways to connect to your website using FileZilla – QuickConnect, and the standard way. QuickConnect allows you to pop in the login details and connect. It keeps a history of connections you’ve already made and allows you to just pick them from a drop-down box. This is a great tool for people like me who manage a number of websites, but for you, you probably will not use it.

We’re going to skip QuickConnect in this tutorial, but this is what it looks like (click to enlarge):

The standard way to connect to a server using FileZilla is to go to File>Site Manager:

Once you’re there, you’ll add a New Site. This is where you will enter your website’s FTP login information. Where it says Logontype, choose Normal, unless you know that you are specifically not to use that setting. Make sure to Rename the NewSite but highlighting it and selecting the Rename button.

Once you’ve filled in all of the details, choose Connect. This will automatically save your setting as well as connect right away. Once connected, you’ll see the list of files that are on your server (click to enlarge):

Looking at the files on your server

None of what you see probably looks familiar to you. That’s OK. For the vast majority of you, you’re looking for one thing only: the folder called public_html. Some of you have hosting companies that set up your website in different ways. I won’t go into all of the various places your website files could be located. Just look for public_html and if you can’t find it, call your hosting company and ask them specifically, “in which directory on my server are my website files stored?”

Once you’ve located public_html, open it. Just double-click it and it will open. You’ll see a file called index.— – that’s your home page (unless you’ve re-directed it elsewhere).

Finding WordPress

WordPress is installed in three folders (also called directories): wp-admin, wp-content and wp-includes. You are most likely only going to be working with wp-content, because this is where themes and plugins are located.

Look Around

One word of caution: look but don’t touch right now. Just click around and see if things look familiar. Perhaps you’ll see an images folder, or surveys, or newsletters, archives, etc. For we WordPress people. it’ll look different. If you open wp-content you’ll see themes, plugings, uploads, upgrade and maybe some others.

Test Our Your FTP Skills

Believe it or not, you’re about 90% of the way there in this tutorial. You see, what you’ve done is opened a window into your website so you can see the files that are there. Now we’re going to cover the three most basic functions of FTP: uploading, downloading, and deleting files.

Uploading a file to your website

In the local site window on the left, browse for a file you want to upload as a test. Just double click in the window to navigate somewhere, such as your Pictures folder.

In the remote site window on the right, make sure you are  in the public_html folder (see image below; click to enlarge):

Back in the local site window under Filename, select the file you want to upload and DRAG it to the remote site window. In my test, I’m uploading a file called avatar.jpg to my public_html folder (the main directory on my website):

This will begin the upload. You’ll see the file you’re uploading in the bottom window, called Queue. You’ll see a green bar that lets you know it’s uploading. That’s it!

To see if it worked, visit the URL of the file, which is your main website’s address + /thefilename. In my example, it would be http://www.tiadpeterson.com/avatar.jpg:

Download a File from Your Server

Occasionally there may be a file on your server that you don’t have or need a copy of. Perhaps you’re working with a website developer who’s made some changes and you don’t have their latest version.

To download, simply find the file in the remote site window that you want to download. In the local site window, find the folder where you want to put this file. Then, back in the remote site window, select the file and DRAG it back to the local site window – be sure to drop it in the exact folder you want. To assure this, OPEN the folder you want in the local site window by double-clicking it.

That’s it! You’re done. If you want to be sure you actually downloaded it, find the folder in your normal fashion your computer (perhaps by going through Windows Explorer or MyDocuments).

Deleting a File from Your Server

Caution! Please don’t do this unless you’re sure this is what you want or need to do.

To delete a file from your server, navigate to the file in the top remote site window (not under Filename), select it, right-click and choose Delete:

Again. I am strongly cautioning against doing this unless you know why you’re doing it.

You’re Done

Hopefully this tutorial was easy. I think it’ll help a lot. You may not have an occasion to ftp into your website right this moment, but I promise you there will come a time in your website-owner life where someone will say, upload this via ftp to your server. When that happens, you won’t have to say “huh?” because this lovely tutorial helped you out!

Have a great day! Leave a comment here if you have a specific question so I can answer it and benefit everyone.

© 2009, Tia Peterson. All rights reserved. This text may be reproduced with permission. Please contact tia@tiadpeterson.com to request permission to reuse this content. Thank you!