In order to be able to use ftp, you must have a PPP (point to point) connection to the Community Net. (This is also referred to as "graphical" access.) If the only connection you have to the Community Net is a dial-up, text-based account you will not be able to use ftp. You can transfer files to and from your IP account via ftp as long as you have graphical access to the Internet with any ISP (Internet Service Provider)--it could be a Community Net account or it could be an account with a commercial ISP.

WS_FTP LE (Ipswitch, Inc.) is a highly-regarded freeware program used by many Information Providers to transfer files from their personal computer to their IP directory on the HWCN. It is available for Windows 3.1, Windows 9x and Windows NT. You can download and install this program from many sites on the Internet. (Try, for example, www.tucows.interlynx.net.) These instructions are based on version 4.6 of the program running on Windows 98. WS_FTP LE can be customized to quite an extent. If some of the following directions do not correspond exactly to how things appear on your computer, it could be because you (or someone else who uses your computer!) has already changed some of the settings.

After you have WS_FTP LE installed on your computer, launch it and you will be greeted with a "Session Properties" dialog box. You must create a new profile with information specific to the Community Net computers and to your account:

• Click on the "New" button
• Enter a "Profile Name" such as: Country Dancers' Web Site
• In the Host Name/Address box, type: hwcn.org
• You can leave the Host Type as: Automatic detect
• In User ID type your account name, for example: ip082
• Type your account password in the Password box
• If security is not a problem on the personal computer you are using, you may decide to check the Save Pwd box. Then, you will not have to enter it each time you establish an ftp connection with the HWCN
• Click on the OK button

After clicking on the OK button, you will be connected to the Community Net (assuming that your Internet connection is active). You should see two windows or "panes" displayed in the program. The left hand pane is a view of the directory structure (folders and files) on your personal computer (the "local" computer) and the right hand pane displays a similar view of the "remote" computer (the HWCN computer).

Navigating to the Correct Folder

Using standard Windows conventions, you should navigate to the drive and folder on your local machine which contains your Web site files. (As a reminder, double clicking on a folder will "open" it and let you see a listing of its contents. Double clicking on the "crooked arrow and two dots" at the top of the directory listing will take you up to a higher level folder (the "parent" folder). Double clicking on one of the drive icons at the very bottom of the directory listing will let you view the contents of another disk drive.)

When you connected to the HWCN, you should have been automatically placed in the /cfn/info/Information folder. From there, you must navigate to the folder where your Web site files will be found. Every Information Provider has a separate folder to contain these files. You should have been given the name of the folder when your account was set up. If you don't have a record of it, e-mail infoadmin@hwcn.org to ask for it. As an example, the files for the Hamilton Country Dancers Web site reside in a folder named "jig". The "jig" folder resides in the "leisure" folder which resides in the "sports" folder. In other words, for the Hamilton Country Dancers to update their site, they would have to transfer their files to: /cfn/info/Information/sports/leisure/jig. Again, remember that you open folders by double clicking on them.

Once you have navigated to the correct directory on both the local and remote computers, you should save this configuration so that next time you use this WS_FTP LE "session profile", you will be taken back here automatically. To save the configuration, click on the "Options" button at the bottom of the WS_FTP LE screen, make sure that you're looking at the "Session" tab, and then click on the button which reads "Save Current Directories as Connection Directories". Finish by clicking on the OK button.

Transferring Files

You should now be ready to transfer files from one computer to the other. Let's say you want to transfer files from your personal computer to your IP directory on the Community Net. (You can, of course, transfer files in the other direction as well.) In the left hand pane, select the files (or even folders) that you want to transfer. (As a reminder: select a file or folder by clicking on it once. To select multiple files or folders which are contiguous in the list, click on the first one, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and, while holding down Shift, click on the last one you wish to select. If the files you whish to select for transfer are not contiguous in the list, click on the first one, hold down the Ctrl key and, while holding it down, click on any subsequent files which you wish to add to the selection.)

To transfer the selected files, simply click on the grey arrow button in the middle of the screen, the one which point towards the right (towards the remote computer pane).

UNIX File Naming Conventions

On occasion, you may have to rename a the file on the remote computer. (From index.htm to index.html, for example). Simply click on the file name in the right pane to select it and then right click on it (i.e. click using the right mouse button). From the menu of choices which pops up, choose "Rename file..." (by left clicking) and then type in the new file name.

It is very important not to forget that file and folder names in UNIX (the operating system used on the Community Net computers) are case sensitive. "Index.html" and "index.html" are considered two completely different files by the HWCN computers. Your homepage file must be named index.html.

UNIX supports file names up to 256 characters in length. It is safest to limit yourself to numbers and upper and lower case letters because there are some punctuation marks and other special characters which are not allowed in UNIX file names. Do not use spaces, &, $, ~ or #, for example. One common convention is to separate words in file names by using the underscore character. A file named: dance_member_form1.html would be perfectly acceptable.

Testing Your Files

Using your Web browser (e.g. Navigator, Internet Explorer or Lynx), you should now visit your site to make sure the files were properly transferred and are accessible to the visiting public. If, when you try to browse to your site, you receive an error message indicating that your files are not accessible, one of the things you should check is that the file "permissions" are set correctly.

UNIX File Permissions

The HWCN computers which host your Web site files use the UNIX operating system. In most cases, you don't have to worry about the differences between UNIX and the Windows or Apple operating system you likely use on your personal computer. Other than the file naming rules mentioned above, the other difference which causes IPs the most trouble is the UNIX concept of "permissions". Knowing a little bit about permissions will help you troubleshoot a problem which IPs commonly experience when they first start using the Community Net.

In UNIX, each file has a set of permissions associated with it. These attributes determine who can do what with a file. UNIX recognizes three categories of users, each of which can have a different level of access to a file. The categories are "owner", "group" and "other". You can independently set "read", "write" and "execute" permissions for each of these three categories of user. You are the owner of your IP files and must have "read" and "write" permissions on them. The general public, surfing in from the Internet, belongs to the "other" category. If "other" does not have permission to "read" the files in your Web site folder, they will receive an error message and will not be able to visit your site. On the other hand, if you give "write" permission to "other", anybody could modify or delete your files! Note that when you browse your site using a graphical browser (e.g. Navigator or Internet Explorer), you too are considered "other" and won't be able to view your files unless the permissions are set correctly.

WS_FTP LE lets you easily change the permissions on your files. To do so, click once on a file in the remote computer directory listing to select it, then right click (i.e. click using the right mouse button) on it. From the menu which pops up, choose "chmod". Ensure that you give the following permissions (by making sure that there is a check mark in the box beside each one):

Owner: Read, Write
Group: Read
Other: Read

Make sure that you click on the OK button in the dialog box to have the changes take effect. You can select multiple files in the remote folder (using the same techniques as explained above) and reset the permissions on all of them at once.

One Last Tip

Check out the "remote edit" feature of WS_FTP LE. This allows you to select a remote file and load it into a program on your personal computer for editing. When you close the editing program, the updated file is automatically transferred back to the remote directory. This can be especially useful for making quick "on the fly" changes to an html file using a text editor, for example. For more about this, or any other WS_FTP LE topic, make sure to check out the help files which come with the program. (Click on the grey Help button at the bottom of the WS_FTP LE screen.)

Additional Help

If you need further clarification or assistance, do not hesitate to e-mail your menu page editor or the Information Committee (information@hwcn.org).

Steven Nagy, nagy@hwcn.org, June 1999