FTP Upload

Using the Microsoft Windows FTP Utility

As part if our file storage and sharing service, Biscu.com offers excellent FTP hosting services. To access the FTP hosting services, an FTP client is required. Most modern web browsers have some FTP support built in, but web browsers often lack FTP upload capabilities. If your browser lacks FTP upload, you’ll need to either download an FTP client that supports FTP upload or use the command line FTP utility (ftp.exe) which is included in most versions of Microsoft Windows and supports FTP Upload. This article will discuss in detail the use of this utility.

Launching ftp.exe

Click "Start" to open the start menu, then "Run…" to open the Run dialog box. In the Run dialog box, type "FTP" and press enter. This will open a command line window with an "FTP>" prompt. If a command line window does not appear or you get an error message, you may not have the Microsoft Windows FTP utility installed. Users without this utility will have no choice but to download an FTP client from the Internet or use their web browser’s limited FTPupload capabilities.

Connecting to ftp.biscu.com

Once you’ve successfully launched ftp.exe and have arrived at the "FTP>" prompt, you can begin issuing commands. The first thing we need to do is establish a connection to the Biscu.com FTP hosting servers by issuing the Open command. At the "FTP>" prompt, type "open" and press enter. Open takes a single parameter: the URL of the FTP hosting server. At the "To" prompt, enter the name of the Biscu FTP server, "ftp.biscu.com", and press enter.

If you receive a connection error, you may need to reissue the Open command, making sure to enter the name of the Biscu FTP server correctly. If you still cannot connect to Biscu.com, verify that you are connected to your ISP. Once you have successfully connected, you will be prompted to log in, follow the instructions below.

Logging in to ftp.biscu.com

When you establish a connection to ftp.biscu.com you will be prompted to log in by entering your user name and password. At the "User …" prompt, enter your Biscu.com user name (your E-Mail address) and press enter. If you entered your user name correctly, you will also be prompted for your password, go ahead and enter it as well.

If you receive a log in error you may need to attempt to log in again. The User command can be used from the "FTP>" prompt. User will prompt you for your user name and password exactly as above.

Simple File Operations

Once you are successfully logged in you will be returned to the "FTP>" prompt once again. Type "Help", then press enter, to view a list of all available commands. To see what a command does, type "Help" followed by a space and the name of the command, for example "HELP LS".

To find out what folder you are in, type "PWD" and press enter. The server will respond by printing out the name of the current folder. If you just logged in, "/", will be the current folder.

To navigate to a different folder, type "CD" and press enter. You will be prompted for the name of the "remote directory" you want to move to. Type the name of the desired folder.

To see a list of all the files and folders available in the current folder, type "LS" and press enter. If you have no files in your account, the current folder will be empty.

To create a new folder, type "MKDIR" and press enter. You will be prompted for the name of the "remote directory" you want to create. Type the desired name for the new folder.

To delete a folder, type "RMDIR" and press enter. You will be prompted for the name of the "remote directory" you want to delete. Type the name of the desired folder.

To start an FTP upload, type "SEND" and press enter. You will be prompted for the name of the "local file" and the name of the "remote file". For the local file, type the name of the file as it exists on your computer. It is recommended that you use the full path name beginning with "C:\". If an error occurs, you may have mistyped the name of the file. For the remote file, type the name of the file as you want it created on the server. You can specify a path here beginning with "/", but this is optional. The FTPupload will begin immediately but may take a few minutes to complete depending on the speed of your internet connection and the size of the file.

To download a file, type "GET" and press enter. You will be prompted for the name of the "remote file" and the name of the "local file". This command works just like Send except in the reverse direction.