FTP – File Transfer

Configuring accounts, Transferring files, Managing files and directories

FileZilla Series

CoreFTP Series

CuteFTP Series

FlashFXP Series

LeechFTP Series

WinSCP Series

WS_FTP Series

SmartFTP Series

How to create an FTP account
Please watch our movie tutorial on Creating an FTP account

An FTP account is basically used to upload and manage your files on your web site. By default, an ftp account is created automatically when you sign up for hosting, create an addon domain or create an account for a user. You can give different people access to modify certain files and not others by giving permissions to only edit or access a particular directory. You must create an FTP account for the user to do so. To create an FTP account, please do the following:

• Login to cPanel and go to the Files section.
• Optional step: If you are using the X theme, click FTP Manager
• Click FTP Accounts
• Click Add FTP Account
• To the right of “Login:” Type the name of the ftp user. Please note, the full ftp user name will be “user@primarydomain.tld”. Remember, when you create an FTP account for an Addon domain or Subdomain, it will have a username with @yourdomain.com at the end. You cannot create an FTP account without your domain name in it, regardless of the publish destination.
• To the right of “Password:”, Please provide a password which will be used to access this ftp account.
• To the right of “Quota“, please provide the amount of space you would like the user to have. Please note, If you leave at unlimited , the user will have ability to only use up to the total amount of space for your account.
• To the right of “Director/home/user/public_html“, Please provide a directory for which you would like the user to access to. If you leave it blank, the user will have access to full “Public_HTML” directory.
• Click Create

You have now just set up an FTP account. Please note that you may not create an FTP account which will have access to your home directory. This means that the most access you can give to an FTP account which you create is access to the public_html. Only the cPanel user name, when used for FTP purposes, will have access to anything inside the home folder. (The home folder contains the public_html folder.)

FTP Settings and Connection

This FTP information is found in the welcome email we send.

FTP Host/Address: (your ip address)
FTP User: (cPanel user name)
FTP Password: (cPanel password)
Port: 21
Path/directory: /public_html

Files and folders must be uploaded to the public_html directory to be visible from your website. You can have your FTP program open this location automatically by changing the "Path/directory:" setting to /public_html "

Place your CGI scripts into the cgi-bin directory.

Too many connections? Max number of connections from one IP is 8.

Secure FTP (SFTP)
SFTP (Secure FTP) is the recommended way to transfer files because the password isn’t sent over the internet in clear text. On Clearlight it is accessed on port 2222.

If you select SFTP in Dreamweaver then the host name should be in the format "domain.name:2222" or "IPAddress:2222".

How to publish with Dreamweaver:

• Open your Dreamweaver and look in the top menus. Click "Sites" and choose "New Site".
• In the pop-up window, choose the "Advanced" tab.
• Select "Remote Info" and then enter the FTP settings on the right hand side.

More tips:
Try passive mode with both on and off.
Try with Use Firewall on.
Try with path/directory: /public_html/

Connecting to root:If you want to connect to your home directory on a shared server, or your root directory on a VPS or dedicated server, then you can use these tips.
Try with path/directory: /
Try connecting with Secure FTP.

How to publish with FrontPage:

With FrontPage Extensions:
 * In cPanel, FrontPage Extensions must be installed.
 * Publish Destination = http://(domain.tld) or http://(ip.ad.dre.ss)

Without FrontPage Extensions:
 * Publish Destination = ftp://(ftp.domain.tld) or ftp://(ip.ad.dre.ss)

User/Author name = (cPanel user name)
Password = (cPanel Password)
The same settings work for addon and subdomains.

Note: Installing FrontPage extensions can erase everything in your .htaccess files.

FrontPage keeps publishing to a folder inside public_html

On your home PC, you need to save these files in the MySite folder (with the globe icon on the folder). Then attempt to publish as normal.

There are several FTP clients which you may download and install for free. We have video tutorials that will teach you how to use them as well. Click on the "Download" link next to the name of the FTP client you wish to use to be taken to the download page for that FTP client.

Filezilla FTP – Download – Check out our video tutorials.

Core FTP – Download – Check out our video tutorials.

Cute FTP – Download – Check out our video tutorials.

Smart FTP (30 day demo) – Download – Check out our video tutorials.

How to control FTP sessions
Please watch our movie tutorial on Controlling FTP sessions

There is an icon in cPanel called "FTP Session Control", but this feature only works with ProFTPd. All of our servers run PureFTPd.

The only way you can terminate FTP connections is to have jailshell enabled, then use ‘ps’ to list the processes and ‘kill’ to kill the ftpd processes.
ps afux |grep ftpd
…
kill ####
Be sure to replace #### with the actual PID you get.

Can I use FTP as an off server backup?
We don’t recommend it, as it can be considered a "file dump" which is against our TOS.

What is file dumping? – A large number of files that are transferred from one place to another without any particular organization, as in copying media or backup files from your computer to our server.

Common FTP Socket Errors

A socket is defined as one endpoint of a two-way communication link between two programs running on the network. A socket is bound to a port number so that the TCP layer can identify the application that data is destined to be sent.

Normally an FTP server runs on a specific machine and has a socket that is set to a specific port number. The server mainly waits and listens to the socket for a client to make a connection request. The client makes a connection request by trying to meet with the server on the server’s machine and port. If everything goes well, the server accepts the connection. Upon acceptance, the server gets a new socket bound to the same port. It needs a new socket so that it can continue to listen to the original socket for connection requests from other clients while tending to the needs of the currently connected client. On the client side, if the connection is accepted, a socket is successfully created and the client can use the socket to communicate with the server. The client and server can now communicate by writing to or reading from their sockets.

A socket error can occur if one or more of the above conditions are not met or something is blocking communication between the client and server (e.g. firewall, anti-virus). Additionally, a client connection can already be established with a server when a socket error occurs such as in cases when the network connection goes down or the host that the client connects to suddenly crashes or reboots.

Common FTP Socket Error Codes

• 11001 – Host not found.
  Check that the hostname or IP address has been entered correctly.
• 11004 – Valid name, no data record of requested type.
  This error generally indicates that the specified FTP server name is incorrect or not specified. Try entering the hostname or IP address, not a URL (e.g. if ftp://server.domain.com/ is entered, then change it to the shared ip address). Another possibility is that connection is blocked by a firewall. Try temporarily turning off the Windows firewall or any other software firewall you are running.
• 10061 – Connection refused.
  The hostname is correct, but the FTP server is not listening on the port, there is no FTP server running, or a firewall is blocking the connection.
• 10093 – Connection failed.
  This can happen when the network connection goes down, e.g. the FTP server is no longer connected to the network.
• 10039 – Destination address required.
  There may be a problem getting the IP address for the hostname. If you have entered an IP Address, try entering a server and domain name instead (e.g. server.domain.com). Another possibility is that connection is blocked by a firewall. Try temporarily turning off any firewall you are running.
• 10052 – Network dropped connection on reset.
  The host you were connected to crashed and rebooted. Try reconnecting at a later time.
• 10054 – Connection reset by peer.
  Basically, an existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. This normally results if the peer application on the remote host is suddenly stopped, the host is rebooted or the remote network was somehow disabled.
• 10022 – Invalid argument.
  Some invalid argument was somehow supplied. In some instances, it also refers to the current state of the socket (e.g. socket is not listening). Also, a firewall running on the host or client machine can be blocking transmission.

Note:
Along with the errors listed above, there are several other socket errors that can possibly occur. If you are receiving a socket error code that is not listed above, please refer to the following MSDN site for a complete listing: Window Sockets Error Codes

Additionally, if you are encountering any FTP related issues, we strongly suggest that you test the transmission with other FTP clients. This is a good method in determining the root of the problem. Keep in mind that when you are having similar problematic behavior in multiple clients against the same server, it’s more than likely a server problem, and needs a support ticket.

How to use FTP via Windows Explorer
Microsoft has developed an easy way for you to connect and upload files to your website

Notice: Internet Explorer once had a built in FTP client which a lot of people used. You can NOT access FTP through Internet Explorer anymore.

To quickly connect, go to your desktop and open My Computer. In the address bar, type the following:
ftp://yourusername:yourpassword@domain.com
or
ftp://yourusername:yourpassword@yourIPaddress

You must replace yourusername with your control panel username (a self-created FTP username will NOT work in this situation). Replace yourpassword with your control panel password. Replace domain.com with your actual domain name, or replace yourIPaddress with the server IP found in your welcome email.

If you forget to enter a username and password, then you may see folder called “pub”. If so, you have accidentally tried to connect to anonymous FTP, and your connection has failed. Please try again.

You will know you have successfully logged in when you see your website folders appear in the window. Now you can drag and drop files between your computer and your hosting server.

How to Use Web FTP / browser-based FTP
How to use browser-based FTP (also known as WebFTP) on your Windows PC:

Open My Computer (do NOT open Internet Explorer).

Input one of the following URLs into your Address Bar, replacing the credentials listed with your account information:
ftp://username:password@serverIPaddress/
– or -
ftp://username:password@domain.com/

NOTE: This will not work with additionally created FTP accounts or addon domain FTP accounts, as your computer will not accept two @ symbols in the URL. You must replace the @ in your username with "\40". So, the resulting URL will look like ftp://username\40domain.com:password@serverIPaddress/

My FTP is really slow or disconnects often. Why?

Go into your FTP options and see if passive mode is checked, if it is, uncheck it. If it is not checked, try checking it. This should solve your problem, assuming the issue is not with your actual connection to the Internet.

FTP timeout – This time is set on your ftp program. Usually ftp timeout is due to a bad internet connection, bad ftp program, or the server is temporarily unavailable.

Specific Issue: You can connect to FTP, but immediately times out when trying to upload files.
Cause: FTP-DATA packets are being blocked by the server.

Resolution: Contact Clearlight and provide us your connecting IP address

Remember, we have a limit of 8 simultaneous FTP connections per your connecting IP address.

Passive FTP mode

Go into your FTP options and see if passive mode is checked, if it is, uncheck it. If it is not checked, try checking it.

If you are behind a router, you will normally enable passive FTP mode.

Publishing Issues
First, Refresh the webpage in your browser.

• All website files must be inside the public_html folder.
• Your home page should be named index.html (all lower-case).
• Broken images may be in the wrong folder. Also the file name may not match what is in the HTML code.

Note: Site Studio requires the domain name to be fully propogated and resolving to Clearlight.
Site Studio support is at www.psoft.net/ssdoc/help.html

Note: Some FrontPage extensions may not be supported. cPanel will only support publishing with Microsoft FrontPage 2000 and newer versions.

Why am I not allowed to upload files?
Make sure you are uploading to the right web directory, which is inside the public_html or www folder. If you’re sure you’re uploading to the right folder, you are probably out of disk space.

Why does my FTP fail to connect?
If your FTP progam is not connecting properly, here are some possible reasons:

• Your firewall could be blocking it.
• Make sure you have the IP address in your welcome email for host name (only the numbers don’t add ftp, www or anything else).
• Make sure your username and password are the same as your control panel username and password.
• Some FTP programs require a path in order to connect. Your path would be /home/YOURUSERNAME/public_html

Please allow 24 hours for your FTP password to sync with your cPanel password. If it does not work within 24 hours, please contact Support.