FTP: Leech FTP

If you’ve recently been hosted or got a new domain, chances are you’ll need to know FTP in order to update and manage your site.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and an FTP program is exactly that – a protocol that transfers files. So there will be no more ‘edit mode’ like in Freewebs. Rather, you’ll have files on your computer that you transfer to your web server by uploading.

Most FTP programs work the same way. You will usually have a username and password to login to your FTP account, and transferring files works by simply dragging and dropping files with your mouse.

In this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to use Leech FTP.

Download LeechFTP here.

Connecting and using

1. Open up Leech FTP.
2. Click the lightning bolt in the top left corner that looks like the icon below. This is to connect to your server.

   
    

3. A dialog box should open like the one below. Put in the information that your host has given you – host URL, username and password. In most cases the port will be 21.

   
    

4. Click OK. Now notice there are several panels. Take a look at the middle one. This should show files on your computer. The file path appears at the bottom of the frame.
   When connected, the right hand panel shows the files on your server. The following basically shows what everything looks like:

   
    

5. To open folders, simply double click on them.
   To move up a folder, click the uppermost icon that looks like this:

   

   To change directories in your computer’s files, right click (left-click on a left-handed mouse) in a blank space and click ‘change directory’:

   

   Notice also that right clicking (secondary clicking) will give you other options such as deleting and renaming.
    

6. To upload a file to your website, simply drag it from the panel containing your computer files to the panel containing your website files:

   
    

7. Once the upload is complete, you should see a message similar to the following in the top panel:

   
    

8. If you’re looking to download from your server to your computer, simply drag the file from the right panel to the left panel.
    
9. It’s that simple! You now know how to use FTP!