Quick Steps Overview:

• Whatever system you use as your web server will have policies on do's and don'ts. Check with your system administrator for your web server as to the latest policies. Example.
• Also create manually or ask your system administrator for the web site to issue you a web account with a host address, a username and password. The administrator will provide you with a specific labeled area on the web server's hard drive that only someone with your account data will be able to enter. Unless you give this information to someone else, only you and the administrator will be able to access it. The web server administrator will only be in your file area if there are problems with your account.
• Find and install the WS_FTP Application.
• Place your files in your account area on the hard drive of a remote computer that is running web server software. This is also referred to as publishing your web pages.
• Significantly speed up access to the folders and files for uploading.

Find and/or Install the WS-FTP Application

You need to place a copy of all of the web page files that are on your disk into the folder (directory) created by your system administrator for your account that is on a computer running a web server application. You can also put additional folders within your your account folder. On a Windows computer a good free program to support this File Transfer Process (FTP) effort is WS_FTP which can be downloaded from the Internet if you do not have it. It can be found at:
• from WCU's Computer Center site for applications officially supported by its Help Line (phone 7487) or use their free 800 number.
• If the Computer Center site is down, see also: www.download.com or www.shareware.com


With WS_FTP you can move one file or several at a time to your web site by shift clicking on several files, then clicking the right arrow.

Use WS-FTP to move files into your web account area on a Remote computer

See the movie or read the text description of the process. First timers will benefit from watching the movie first. Repeat users may just need the text for a quick review.

Screen Movie (Video) Show of the Login and File Transfer Procedure

Watch the movie to see how to use the file transfer application called WS-FTP (movie).

If this movie does not play, download and install the latest version of Windows Media Player. If it still does not play, or if you read faster than watching a movie, then see the text description below of the same thing.

Text Description of the Login and File Transfer Procedure

• Start up the FTP software application called WS_FTP. There are two windows that you use to control this program. The first screen is the log-in window, also called the Session Properties window. The second window, which appears after you log-in can be though of as your file management window.
• There are other examples of this screen for other servers: paws server; geocities server.

• In the Login window that appears are several fields into which you must type information. 
1. In the first field called Profile Name you can simply type the word Claws, Geo or Paws, depending on the server being used, as this is just a label for the site you are using.
2. In the second field called Host Name, enter the address of the host computer to which you need to connect. As appropriate to the account being used, enter something like:
• claws.wcu.edu or ftp.geocities.com
3. Leave Host Type alone, set to Automatic detect. In the third field called  User ID, enter your username.
4. In the fourth field called Password, enter your current password. You will not see the characters in your password, just a bullet or dot for each character you enter.
5. Leave the Account field blank. Finally, Click OK or tap the enter or return key.

After you are logged on to the remote computer, the file management window displays two smaller windows. The one that appears to the left displays your local files such as from your file storage device or from your system's hard drive. The right window should display your account area on the system to which you just logged in. If you do not see your files but see folder names, double click on them to find the file or place you need.

Once the right folders are opened and the needed files visible, move some files into the web server account space. Moving a file from your computer to your web server is known as uploading. If the files on the local computer or USB drive are lost, they can be recovered from the web server. Moving the file from the 'Net to your computer is called downloading.

 Arrow Keys

• Use your knowledge of the windows operating system to find the files that you wish to transfer.
• In the radio button towards the bottom of the window that appears, if necessary, change the format of the file to text. (All web pages must transfer as text, not binary files.)
• Next click the right arrow and the transfer process begins. WS_FTP shows your file transfer progress with the number of bytes that have transferred,. Continue this process to move all the files that are ready to move at this time and repeat the process later as you have more files to transfer.
• Use the left arrow button to move a file from your web host back to your local hard drive, but you will seldom if ever need to do this. 
• Though you do not need them now, note that there are other buttons such as for deleting and renaming files and making directories (folders). This can also be done in other ways outside of WS_FTP but it is also very efficient to have those features here.

Significantly Speed Up Folder Opening

WS_FTP can be taught to find and open the needed folders directly, bypassing the tedious procedure of manually clicking through the needed steps. Use the Startup tab to enter the necessary folder name on a local drive (e.g, USB drive) and the account name on the web server. The Session Properties box on the right provides an example. The account name or name of folder on the web server goes in the top line. The local folder path in the second line. If the needed folder is inside another, then add the additional folder names, for example F:\computer-class\web stuff folder.

Screen Movie Demo

Watch the screen movie to see a demonstration of entering this information. This shortcut will greatly increase the efficiency and speed of this process.

Other Issues

Though web pages (.html extension files) should be sent with the radio button on ASCII or Text format, all other files (images, sounds, video, application files) should be sent with the Radio button on binary format. The radio button is not set correctly in the example picture above. By clicking the radio button at the Auto (e.g., Automatic) box, the computer will determine which is which and prevent problems.

Your FTP file management window can be timed out. That is, when the web server determines that you have not recently used your connection to it, the server closes the connection automatically and without warning. Don't quit the WS_FTP program when you must move back to your web page editor (e.g., Composer), just let it do the "time-out thing". When the editing is done and requires uploading again, use the Close button in the bottom left of WS_FTP screen to Close then Connect to work through the log-on procedure one more time.
 

Change Password

Every system will have a way for you to periodically change your password. If questions persist, contact the technical help line.

For the claws.wcu.edu server, contact the WCU Help Line.

For the paws.wcu.edu server, use a browser to go to this address, http://paws.wcu.edu/apply.asp,  and click the link to Change your PAWS account password.
 

Use A Browser to Test Your Account's Web Pages

How does it look?

1. To test the success of your uploading, use a web browser. In the location window at the top of the screen, you may need to enter the address to the web file that you just placed in your account area and tap the return key. The format is: domain name, account name and file name separated by slashes.
2. For the address of your web files, you will need to add your own username, but the address might look something like one of these:

http://claws.wcu.edu/absmith1/index.html

http://paws.wcu.edu/JZ12819/index.html  or simply http://paws.wcu.edu/JZ12819/

http://www3.wcu.edu/~Houghton/index.html

http://152.30.16.200/QT17943/home.html

http://www.somewhere.com/Smith/assignments.html

Your web page with its latest changes should appear. If it does not, then you will need to return to the steps above and determine which one must be properly completed. Some computers always uses the tilde symbol (~) in front of your username.

 You may also find the the URL or address of your web page is already entered because you were just looking at it. To force the latest changes to appear on a web page after a new version has been uploaded to a remote web server computer, click the Reload button on browser screen or Refresh in Internet Explorer.

Trouble Shooting Your Uploads

Knowing how to read the FTP display is valuable. The picture below of a web account contains an indication of a file upload problem. Can you tell what it is?

The answer is that the file sizes on the Remote Site side, right side window, shows a problem. Most off the files that were uploaded show a file size of zero. You might think of this as having containers in your refrigerator that are empty. The filename is there, but there is nothing in it. The data did not arrive or all of it did not arrive. If the size of the file that you uploaded does not match the file size of the one that arrived in your account, then the server puts a zero there to tell you that the upload did not work. It must be uploaded again. If the upload consistently shows a zero and it does show that transfer is completed for that upload, then the upload must be done from a different computer or the network connection problems of your current computer must be fixed. This could indicate a bad modem, bad wiring or problems with the Internet Service Provider that will require notifying them of the problem.

Plan Ahead and Edit, Edit, Edit

One advantage of this form of publishing, web publishing, is the quickness with which it becomes available to anyone on the planet. This assumes of course that others have been told what these web pages contain and how they can reach them. Carefully edit. Invite someone else to review the pages being published. Someone seeing pages for the first time will spot errors the original author no longer sees. Not only can you display your latest great ideas and information in seconds, but you can now display your own mis-spellings and incorrectly informed ideas with the same speed.

Use your new skills to share your creative works, interests and activities. For example, you might want to publish a calendar of events, newsletters, personal pages, and any information normally published on paper.

This page last updated on February 17, 2008