A short tutorial on FTP

While it is simple to use a browser for FTP, it is well worth learning how to use proper FTP software, especially for larger downloads and for uploading your own web pages to the Demon homepages server. Such programs are optimised to transfer large amounts of data as efficiently as possible and they offer extra features, such as full logging, greater configurability and very often the facility to resume a file transfer that was abandoned on a previous occasion.

We shall take a brief look at using a typical Windows FTP client (WS FTP Pro) for downloading files from the Demon FTP server and for uploading your own web pages to the Demon homepages server. The basic principles explained here can be applied to most similar FTP clients. Once a configuration is set up, you should find that using FTP is quicker than using a browser. You may wish to print out this section for reference.

The screen shots here are from the Win95 version of WS FTP Pro. Instructions for using the 16-bit (Windows 3) version can be found at

http://www.thor2ru.demon.co.uk/demnlib/ws_ftp16.html

If you are using Turnpike, make sure that you can use WS FTP Pro off-line in order to set it up. To do this, run the Turnpike Connect program but do not dial up - choose Cancel instead. Then click Configure... Toolbar Buttons. Choose the button number from which you launch WS FTP. Make sure that the box marked Allow only if connected is not checked. Click OK. Now you are ready to set up your FTP client, so click the FTP button in the Connect program.

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