|
|
How to Use the FTP Client program FileZilla to manage
your
On-line File Storage, creating Downoad Links and Security Considerations
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a way of getting files from one computer to
another.
It's simple, quick and represents one of the oldest protocols still in everyday
use on the Internet today.
The sending and receiving computers can be a mixture of PCs, Macs, Linux servers
and just about anything else.
FTP has a reputation of being "geeky" to use but, with a modern FTP Client
program, it's not hard to learn and use.
We recommend the FileZilla FTP client program - it might not
necessarily be the best but it's not far off and it's
free.
You can download the
FileZilla installation program from here:-
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/
Go ahead and do this now and then double-click on the downloaded file to start
the installation process. Accept all the default installation options.
You should now find the FileZilla progam icon in your Start menu:-
|
If you already
use another FTP Client program,
there's no
reason why you can't
carry on using it.
This page is
aimed at people who've never used FTP before. |
|
The top and bottom windows are for information only - there's nothing to click
on.
As an example, I'm going to upload a 25mb file called brochure.pdf from
the
My Documents folder on the PC.
Double-click on the My Documents folder in the Your PC - folders
window and the file will appear in the Your PC - files window.
Right-click on the file and choose Upload:-
|
|
|
You can right-click on brochure.pdf in FTP Server - files
and choose
Delete or Rename if you wish.
That's about it!
Learning to use FTP has a shallow learning curve.
How to Create the Correct Link to Download the File
Remember that only you use FTP to upload
the file. The person you're sending the file to is just going to click on a link
in an email you've sent them and download the file to their computer, using a
web-browser, such as Intenet Explorer.
You've got to know, therefore, how to create the required link.
The link is in 2 parts that are joined together to make the final link.
The left-hand part is always the same:-
http://www.arrowmail.co.uk/mycompany/
(You would substitute your account name for mycompany)
The right-hand part of the link is the file name, for example:-
brochure.pdf
Put them together and you have:-
http://www.arrowmail.co.uk/mycompany/brochure.pdf
You could miss off the http:// as most browsers will
automatically insert this if it's missing but it's more correct to leave it in.
You can't put spaces in links and so file names containing spaces are a problem.
In links, a space is represented by %20 so you can either
remove any spaces from the names of files you upload or create a link containing
%20s.
If the file you want to upload is called new brochure.pdf the
the link must be:-
http://www.arrowmail.co.uk/mycompany/new%20brochure.pdf
Capital letters in links don't matter.
A browser will convert any link to all lowercase letters and convert any file
names on your
on-line storage to lowercase to seek a match.
What this means is that you can include capital letters in your uploaded file
names, if you want to, and you can put capital letters in the link to the file
you create but it doesn't matter if the uppercase letters in the file name and
the link don't match up, the file will still be downloaded.
A Word about Security
Sending files as email attachments is not particularly secure against the files
being read by anyone who can get access to the servers in the sending and
receiving chain.
While this is still not an easy thing to do, there have been
several examples in recent times of companies losing data which could be of use
to criminals and so you should be aware of the risks involved with our
FTP/Web-Server method of sending files over the Internet.
Whenever you increase security you decrease ease-of-use so you need to find the
correct balance.
When a file is uploaded to our on-line file storage it's
available to the entire Internet for downloading - all they have to do is guess
the name of the file (including your username which forms part of the link).
Remember that our web-server doesn't allow a web browser to list the contents of
an on-line folder which would show all the available files. So, while it's not
very likely that someone could guess a filename without the link you send them,
you wouldn't want to upload any files containing sensitive company information.
Further down this page we list some higher security options for the on-line file
storage but these do require extras steps to be erformed by the person receiving the file.
You could also consider password-protecting any file you upload as Excel and
Word include this ability, as do many other programs.
So choose the option that best suits your situation.
Tips and Tricks for using FTP
 |
It's always a good idea to test a link before you email it.
Some email programs let you Ctrl+Click on the link after you've
typed it in, otherwise
you can copy and paste it into a browser's Address Bar.
No need to download
the whole file, if the Download Dialogue shown below appears then the link is
correct:-
|
|
Sometimes you won't see an Open/Save/Cancel prompt, and the file will just
automatically open in a program.
Usually a PDF file will open in Adobe Acrobat
Reader.
What happens when someone clicks on a link is determined by the settings on
their PC.
|
|
|
If you're sending a file to a colleague who you don't mind
telling your FTP username and password to and they also know how to use FTP,
it's better if they can download the file using an FTP client.
This is
because FTP supports resume where, in the event of a
disruption, such as the Internet temporarily dropping out, the download can be
resumed later from the point it left off.
This means you don't have to waste
time restarting the download from the beginning, as is the case when downloading
using a browser.
This becomes more important for files over 100mb.
|
|
|
Some times you see FTP links such as:-
ftp://www.arrowmail.co.uk/mycompany/brochure.ftp
Most browsers can act as simple FTP Clients and this
type of link tells a browser to download a file using FTP.
This is not what you want to happen.
The person downloading the file would
then
have to supply your FTP usename and password for this to work, which you
normally don't want to divulge.
Make sure the links you send always start with http://
|
|
|
You can make sub-folders on your on-line storage if this is
helpful for organising your on-line files. If you move a file into a sub-folder
you have created, you have to make sure the link includes the subfolder.
For example, if there is a sub-folder called reports containing a file called
sept09.pdf then the link to download the file is:-
http://www.arrowmail.co.uk/yourcompany/reports/sept09.pdf
|
Customising your On-Line storage space to suit your requirements
Our standard configuration assumes that you want to send a file to one, or many,
people that are not part of your organisation. They probably don't know how to
use FTP and you want to make the process of receiving the file as foolproof as
possible.
If your requirements are different, we can modify your configuration to suit other
situations:-
|
|
You only send files to a handful of people - we can give increased security to
your
on-line files by requiring a username and password to download the files
which you can tell to the people who'll download them.
|
|
|
You are sending and receiving files from someone you trust and you
will both use an FTP client to upload and download files. In this case, for
added security, we can make the on-line files only accessible by FTP by removing
the web-server availability.
|
|
| If you are worried about anyone spying on your Internet traffic you can use our
secure FTP server and secure webserver where all traffic between your PC, our
server and the PC of the person downloading the file is strongly encrypted.
|
|
|
