FTP Activity
Computing Concepts, COSC 106 B
Central College, September 5, 2001
Goals Today we will attempt to create a simple HTML document, use FTP (file transfer protocol) to upload this document to the web server at Central College, and view our web page on the internet. The main purpose here is to familiarize ourselves with a simple FTP program, so that in the future (after graduation) we can upload files to a remote web server.

Warning On campus, there is no need to use FTP to upload files onto our web server. We all have a drive icon (the K-drive) that allows us to copy, write and save files directly to the web server. This easy access to our web server is extremely rare. Most people have to use FTP to get their HTML documents onto the web, and thus, learning to use a simple FTP program is a valuable experience.

Our web server has very few restrictions. You can use either the htm or the html extension on your HTML files. You do NOT have to put your pages for the web in any special folder (like public). If you have a file named index.html or index.htm, web users can simply type in the URL to the folder hoding that file. For example, the URL request

http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont
will actually send (load into the browser) the file http://www.central.edu/homepages/lintont/index.html. It is therefore best to name your main page index.html.
  1. Open up notepad (a simple text editing program). To do this, click [start], [Programs] [Accessories] and then the notepad icon.
  2. Type the following text into a file and save the file on your H drive as index.html. For now, do not worry about the meaning of the HTML commands or the syntax, just copy these lines carefully (substituting your text in the appropriate places).


    3. <HTML>
    <HEAD>
       <TITLE>Our simple web page</TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>

      Type in each person's name and a silly fact about each person using the following pattern (a <P> tag starts a new paragraph, pressing return, to start a new line, is the same thing as pressing a space).
      <P>Person 1 name and fact.
      <P>Person 2 name and fact.
      <P>Person 3 name and fact.
    </BODY>
    </HTML>
  3. Start up the WS_FTP program. To do this, click [Start], [Programs], [Utility Programs], [WS_FTP] and then select the WS_FTP icon. This should bring up a window similar to the one shown below. You may have to click on the [Connect] icon, near the bottom left of the window, and you may have to click the [New] button as well. Type in the information shown below, changing lintont to whatever your login name is. Once you have the correct information entered in the session properties windows, click [OK] to connect to Central's web server.
  1. After entering your password, you should see a screen somewhat similar to the one below. On the left is your local machine (the PC you're sitting at) and on the right is the remote computer (www.central.edu) that you are connected to via FTP. The current directories (folders) will be displayed near the top of each side of this window. The green arrow moves you up one level in the folder hierarchy, and other drive letters (like H, K etc.) are located near the bottom. On the left side, navigate to the folder holding your index.html file (i.e. to the H drive). Click once on the index.html file to select it. On the right side, navigate to your home web folder (mine is /homepages/lintont) if you are not already there. In the middle of the screen, press the put arrow icon (an arrow that runs from left to right). You should now have just managed to send your HTML document to the web server via FTP! You can select many files (use control-click or shift-clcik to select multiple files) and press one of the two arrow icons to either upload files to the web server, or download files from the web server.
  1. Click the [Close] button in the FTP window and then the [Exit] button to shut down the WS_FTP program.
  2. Start Internet Explorer and enter the URL http://www.central.edu/homepages/yourloginname to see your web page! Once you see your webpage live on the internet, send an email message to lintont@central.edu and tell me the names of the people in your group, and the URL of your groups new web page.