FTP With Internet Explorer

Tutorial: Upload Files Using FTP Within Internet Explorer

Most people are familiar with how to "download" something from the web to their own computer. This tutorial is about how to "upload" files - taking files on your computer and sending them to another computer that will make them available to anyone connected to the internet. Uploading is performed using a process called File Transfer Protocol or FTP, and can be performed within Internet Explorer.

What You'll Need

What is a Web Space?

Web space is just another name for hard drive space on a computer that is exposed to the internet. In order to let people see your web pages and other files through the internet, you must upload them to a web space.

Many people will already have a web space without knowing it. Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) include web space as part of their "deals". You should check the details of your deal with your ISP to find out whether they will provide you with a web space. In some cases, you may have to contact your ISP to ask them to create the web space for you.

If your ISP doesn't provide you with a web space free of charge, there are other sites on the internet where you can sign up for free web space. Once such site is Geocities.

You need to have three things in order to be able to upload files during this tutorial:

Some files that you want to upload
Internet Explorer
A web space on the internet

If you're not sure what a web space is, or how you can get one, please read the information in the sidebar.

If you're planning to upload a Photo Page, remember to create the photo page before starting to follow this tutorial!

Three Simple Steps

Internet Explorer makes uploading files an incredibly simple process, so much so that it can be summarised in three simple steps:

Find the files you want to upload
Open your web space in Internet Explorer
Copy the files

1. Find the Files You Want to Upload

The first step is simply to find the folder on your computer that contains the files you want to upload.

If you are uploading a Photo Page, the location where your Photo Page is stored is displayed on the last screen of Photo Page Creator.

If the files are stored under 'My Documents', you can find them by opening 'My Documents' from your Windows desktop. Otherwise, you may need to use 'My Computer' (also on the desktop) or 'Windows Explorer'.

These are just different ways of looking at the contents of your own computer. Once you have opened one of them, browse to the location of the files you want to upload.

2. Open Your Webspace in Internet Explorer

Once you have found the files you want to upload, you need to connect to your web space. Before you can connect to your web space, however, you need to know the name of the server where your web space is located, and the user name and password with which you will log in.

The name of the server used to upload to your web space, usually called an 'FTP Server', can be found out from the company who is providing the web space. If you are using a web space provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), there will usually be a page on their web site that tells you what the name of their FTP server is. Your user name and password for the FTP server will usually be the same user name and password you use to connect to the internet through your ISP.

If you are using some other service, the name of the FTP server should be available somewhere in the Help documentation of that service.

Once you have the name of the FTP server and your user name and password, open Internet Explorer. In the address bar at the top, type in the the letters:

ftp://

and then after those letters, type in the name of the FTP server. So, for example, if the name of the FTP server is members.optusnet.com.au, the address bar should now contain:

ftp://members.optusnet.com.au

You can now press Enter and Internet Explorer will connect to your web space. When it does, it will present you with a login dialog (see right). You should enter user name and password into this dialog and then press the 'Log On' button. Assuming everything works, you are now connected and logged into your web space. You can now use your web space, through Internet Explorer, just like any other folder on your computer. You can copy files and folders to and from it, and move, rename and delete them just as you would from within My Computer.

If your web space contains a folder called 'public_html', you should place all your web pages and other files inside that folder. To enter the folder, double-click on it.

If you want to create a folder within your web space to upload your files to, you can do this by right-clicking in the white space on the right and selecting New > Folder. You can then name the new folder however you like.

3. Copy Your Files

Copying your files to your web space is the easiest part of uploading.

Return to the My Computer or Windows Explorer window that you used in Step One to browse to the location of your files.

Uploading a Photo Page?

The easiest way to copy your Photo Page is to just copy the folder that contains all the Photo Page files.

So, if your Photo Page is saved in My Documents/Photo Pages/BuidingsInJapan, browse to the My Documents/Photo Pages folder and then just copy the BuildingsInJapan folder. Then return to Internet Explorer and paste into the PhotoPages folder you created on your web space.

When you paste the folder into your web space, a folder with the same name will be created and all the contents will be copied over.

Select the folder or files you want to copy. You can select more than one file at a time by holding down the 'CTRL' (Control) key while clicking on each file.

Now hold down the 'CTRL' key on your keyboard and press 'C'. This is the keyboard shortcut for 'Copy' and will tell Windows you want to copy the files you have selected.

Now return to your Internet Explorer window where you are connected to your web space. Press 'CTRL' and 'V' at the same time, which will 'Paste' the files, copying them over to your web space. This may take some time to complete, as your files will now be uploaded to the internet.

Viewing Your Web Pages

When Internet Explorer has finished copying your files to your web space, they are instantly ready to be seen by anyone on the internet. Of course, you'll probably want to be the first person to see them.

The internet address used to view your web space is different to the one used to upload to your web space. Though your files are still in the same place, Internet Explorer needs to know that you want to view your web pages, rather than change them, so that it can display them properly.

The internet address where you can view your web pages will usually be very similar to the FTP address you used to upload them. If you found the address of your ISP's FTP server on a page of their web site, that same page will probably tell you how to access your web pages once they are uploaded.

There are usually three differences between the address you used to FTP your files (e.g. ftp://members.optusnet.com.au) and the address you will use to view them:

The 'protocol' at the start will be http:// instead of ftp://
Your user name will probably appear at the end of the addres, after a slash ('/'), and possibly with a tilde ('~') before it. Sometimes it will appear at the start of the server name, instead.
If the letters ftp. appeared at the start of the server name, they will not be included.

So, for example, if the FTP server you uploaded to was

ftp://members.optusnet.com.au

and your user name is tnobody, the address you would use to view your web pages would probably be something like

http://members.optusnet.com.au/tnobody

Similarly, if the FTP server you uploaded your files to was

ftp://ftp.geocities.yahoo.com

and your user name is tnobody, the address of your web space might be any of the following:

http://geocities.yahoo.com/tnobody
http://geocities.yahoo.com/~tnobody
http://tnobody.geocities.yahoo.com/

Confused?

If you are totally confused about the address you should be using to view your web pages, you can use the tool below to generate the most likely addresses.

Simply enter the name of the FTP server and your user name, then press the 'Generate Addresses' button and three links will appear which you can click one at a time to test if each is the correct address.

FTP Server
User name