Publishing Personal Web Pages with FTP

Publishing pages with FTP
Using Internet Explorer as an FTP

Publishing Pages with FTP

Activate your uNID and Password

If you have used your uNID and are familiar with your account on home.utah.edu (previously called u.cc.utah.edu), you don't need to anything. Otherwise, please be sure you have created a secure password in the Campus Information System since March 25, 2003.

Choose an FTP Client

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is used to transfer files from workstation to server, server to workstation, and server to server. Some common FTP clients used are: Fetch, CuteFTP, SmartFTP and DreamWeaver's built-in FTP client. (Note: these are not free clients.) You can also use Internet Explorer as a file transfer program (FTP).

Setting Permissions

To upload a new file to the home.utah.edu web server via FTP into its own directory that does not yet exist on the web server, you need to use the site umask 002 command. Sending "site umask 002" assures that files uploaded during the current session will be created with the desired permissions of -rw-r--r-- for files, and -rwxr-xr-x for directories and executables.

Please note however that this command is only active during any given session. If you disconnect and then later reconnect, you'll need to issue the umask command again.

Also important to note is that this only needs to be done when uploading files or directories for the first time. If a file or directory already exists, the umask command will not affect the permissions on that file or directory. Instead, you will have to use the chmod command or its equivalent to add the group-write bit for each file in question.

How to send the FTP command "site umask 002" with three common FTP clients are explained below.

Sending FTP site umask 002 commands

Fetch version 5.0.4

Connect to the server
From the "Remote" pulldown menu, select "Send FTP Command(s)..."
Type in "site umask 002" (without quotes)
Click the "OK" button

Note: To see that the command was accepted properly, select "Fetch Transript" from the "Windows" pulldown menu.

CuteFTP version 4.x

Select Commands > Custom commands > define
Enter a Label and the command "site umask 002" (without quotes) in the resulting dialogue box
Click the "OK" button
Connect to the server
Select Commands > Custom commands > (Whatever label you entered in step 2)

Note: The custom command you just defined will now always be available from the commands pulldown menu.

DreamWeaver 8.0

Click the "Connect" button
Select Window > Site FTP Log
Type in "site umask 002" (without quotes) in the FTP Command line

using Internet Explorer as a file transfer program (FTP)

Before you can begin you will need to set up passive FTP. You only need to do this once:

Start Internet Explorer
Select the "Tools" menu and choose "Internet Options"
Find the "Browsing" category
Check the option "Use passive FTP for..."
Click OK
Close your browser
Run Internet Explorer.
Then type in the URL (internet addresses) for your site; such as: FTP://UNID@home.utah.edu After hitting Enter you will be prompted for your account password. Type your password in the field provided and you will be taken to your home directory.
In your home directory, you must create a new directory called public_html. Then you will need to set the public permissions to "world read." Do this by right clicking on the folder and selecting the Read box on the “ALL Users” line.
Your main home page should be named index.htm or index.html by convention. The home page file name must also be in all lower case letters. If a directory is called, and a file name was not specified, the system first looks for index.htm by default. If that file is not found it then looks for the other known alternatives. If none of these files are found then your visitor will receive an error message.
If you want to download a file, click on the file you want and drag it to the desired location.
If you want to upload a file, click on the file you wish to upload and drag it into the Internet Explorer window to copy it there. Explorer will prompt you when the file has been successfully uploaded.

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