All about accessing your Website
How can I upload and access my files?
How do I use FTP or the Control Panel to upload my website files?
What about subdomains?
What file backups should I keep?
>>More hosting FAQs
How can I upload and access my files?
Transferring of files to our servers can be handled either by FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or through the Plesk Control panel. We feel there are several advantages of using FTP over the Control Panel, including the ability to transfer multiple files quickly.
Your FTP program can run from your desktop or systray and has a vast array of options not readily available in the Control Panel or other File Managers.
FTP programs can range in cost from $0 - $150 but the majority of useful FTP programs out there are shareware or freeware and cost nothing. If you would like further information on where to obtain some good FTP Programs, please don’t hesitate to contact us. A good place to start is TUCOWS .
Uploading Your Website Files
You can use either the Control Panel or an FTP program to upload your files. Popular FTP clients include CuteFTP and WS_FTP. You can use the Control Panel to upload files until you get an FTP program and even afterwards if you wish, but you are limited to one file at a time.
To access your Control Panel, go to https://www.yourdomain.com:8443 (use your own domain name instead of "yourdomain.com"). Log in with the username of yourdomain.com (as above) and your password. You will then see a page of buttons that let you do a variety of things, including managing and uploading your files through the File Manager, managing email, checking webstats etc. There is a comprehensive help system built into the Control Panel which should tell you just about everything that you need to know.
Once you have your FTP client you are ready to upload files to your website by FTP. Within your FTP program set up a new connection with the following information:
- Hostname: yourdomain.com (replace this with your own domain name - do not put www. at the front; some FTP programs require you to put ftp. in front but most do not).
- Username: your username
- Password: your password
Your username and password will be the ones you chose when applying for the service, and will have been confirmed in the welcome email you would have received when your service commenced.
Once you are logged in, you will see the various directories within your website area. You will need to place all files in the public directory which is "httpdocs". This is the directory that you will use to upload all your website files (except for any in the SSL area). You can create new directories within this directory - these directories are known as "sub-directories"
When you upload files to the httpdocs directory you can view them by typing in http://www.yourdomain.com/filename.ext to your browser address bar (replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual domain name and "filename.ext" with the proper filename and extension).
If you upload files to a sub-directory, you would be able to view them by typing in http://www.yourdomain.com/sub-directory/filename.ext (again replace these with the relevant names).
What about Subdomains?
Most hosting accounts come with a number of Subdomains accessible. You can create new subdomains through either the Control Panel or through FTP, and they can be created with a different username and password from the main domain if you wish.
Once your new subdomain has been activated you are ready to upload your files to your account. As a subdomain works like a normal domain, you may need to use separate FTP details for the new directory in the subdomain. There is also a cgi-bin directory automatically created for you in this directory. You should upload your subdomain website scripts to this cgi-bin. Again, website files must be uploaded to the "httpdocs" directory.
To reach your new subdomain, enter in the URL:
http://sub.yourdomain.com (replacing sub with your new subdomain name and yourdomain.com with your accounts domain name). Do not include "www".
To reach other files and directories using your sub-domain, enter in a URL like:
http://sub.yourdomain.com/file.html
http://sub.yourdomain.com/directory/file.html
What file backups should I keep?
You should always keep at least one complete copy of your website on your own computer or on disk, and it's not a bad idea to keep two separate copies. In this way, you can work with your files and preview them on your own computer using your browser, then only upload them to your website when you are happy with them. If you make a mess of a page, you can restore it from the other backup copy. If anything happens to the data on your website, you can immediately upload the whole site again as soon as the problem is corrected. We expect all our hosting clients to maintain at least one current backup of their website.
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