In this tutorial we will try to explain how to use DriveHQ FTP lient software and FTP Hosting services for uploading/downloading/sharing/publishing files on the Internet.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a fast, convenient and secure way to transfer files over the Internet. Many webmasters use FTP for uploading their website files to their hosting account and to add files / pictures to their web pages.
This is useful in Web page design if you have composed a Web page on your local computer and want to upload it to your hosting provider online. It is also useful if you want to edit one of your existing pages. All you have to do is download the page from the hosting provider's server to your computer, edit the file and re-upload it.
An FTP client is a program that allows you to easily move files from one computer to another. There are many different FTP clients that you can download from the Internet. Some of these are freewares, while others are sharewares.
FTP is also very popular when you need to share a large file to others. You cannot email a 50MB file to others. The FTP protocol is designed to be reliable in transdering large files. It has built-in mechanism to resume any interrupted uploads/downloads.
Because it is designed to be simple, serving file-transferring purpose. The protocol and the software have had many years to become very mature. It is still a very challenging task to transfer a lot of files or even just one very big file. Email, VPN or Messenger cannot handle this.
Active FTP requires the remote FTP server connecting back to the client computer, thus requiring many ports to be open on your local PC/network. If the client computer is within a firewall / router, the firewall/router/anti-virus/security software will almost always block it.
The Microsoft Command-line FTP doesn't support Passive FTP, so it should not be used if the client computer is running inside of a firewall (or Broadband Router). You can use Unix / GNU version command-line FTP client, which supports Passive FTP.
A lot of FTP client applications are not Unicode-based, so it may not work well on international version operating systems. Also if you have file names and folder names in different languages, most of common FTP client software will have trouble to deal with it. Both DriveHQ FileManager and DriveHQ FTP Server are built to support Unicode. So they work very well in a mixed-language environment.
FTP is a very old technology. It has been very useful in the past. However, the technology evolves at a very fast speed. Today, plain FTP is less and less important. More people are using web-based applications. If you are still using a plain FTP service, it's time to look at the new features available on DriveHQ FTP:
In this section you can find useful resources about how to manage your files via DriveHQ FTP and how to create DriveHQ users:
Create the First FTP Account
If you have a DriveHQ account, then you already have a DriveHQ FTP account. If not, you can visit www.drivehq.com and sign up a free account. Logon and get a complete FTP solution instantly. To create more user accounts, you need to use our group account service, which is extremely useful and flexible. To become a group account, you can logon www.drivehq.com, go to My Account page, then click on Group Account. It is recommended using your company name as the first FTP account username.
Once you have a group account, you can create/add/edit/delete/disable sub-user accounts. Just logon www.drivehq.com, click on Group Admin link. You can then create / manage sub-accounts; allocate storage space and download bytes among your group members.If you need to create many FTP accounts, you can use the Import Feature to quickly create many FTP sub-accounts.
Using the group admin tool, you can select a sub-user and click on Edit. You can change username / password, edit user info, re-set storage space and download bytes, etc.
How to use FTP for transferring files?
To make an FTP connection you can use a standard Web browser* (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.), any FTP client software or Windows Explorer. Please note web browsers don't support drag-&-drop upload / download. Modern FTP client software usually supports drag and drop. DriveHQ FileManager is strongly recommended as it is the best FTP client for accessing DriveHQ FTP Server.
NOTE: When using a Web browser for uploading / downloading, if the connection is broken while data is being transferred, you probably will have to start over again.
Using a GUI-based FTP Client or DriveHQ FileManager, uploads and downloads cannot be easier and more reliable! For example, you're able to resume a download that did not finish successfully. This is a very nice feature for people using wireless connections which frequently break down.