Because we develop Web sites, a common question I hear is "what is FTP?" Although it’s yet another TLA (three letter acronym) in a land that already has too many, FTP is actually pretty simple. FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol," which gives you a hint at what it’s all about. When you develop a Web site, you generally create the pages on your computer, but then you need to get them onto the server somehow. FTP is one way to "transfer" the site files from your hard disk to your Web site.
Another thing that’s a little confusing about FTP is that you often hear the term used in conjunction with other terms, such as "FTP settings" or "FTP client." For example, I use a specific FTP software program (or "FTP client") to move files from my hard disk to a Web site. WS-FTP and CuteFTP are two popular FTP clients.
To transfer files to a Web site, you need to know certain "FTP settings" to access the site on the Web server. Your hosting company gives you these settings when you open an account. When you upload your files, you then type these settings into the FTP client. Usually, there’s the site location (such as ftp.yoursite.com), a username, and a password.
If you don’t have specific FTP software, the ability to transfer files may be built into your Web site design software. Programs like Front Page and Dreamweaver have FTP functions built into them. You even can use Internet Explorer to FTP files. To do that, you put your site name into the address bar prefaced by ftp://, so if the address for your web site is yoursite.com, you’d put ftp://ftp.yoursite.com (although this setting may vary considerably, so ask your hosting company). A Log On As window pops up where you can type your User name and Password. After you see the list of files on the server, you can transfer your files by copying and pasting them from your hard disk into the Internet Explorer window.
To make changes to a Web page, you make the changes to the file on your hard disk and then FTP the file to your server. The new file overwrites the old version with the same name, so your changes appear the next time you browse to that page.