FTP with Internet Explorer

If you have one of the more recent versions of Internet Explorer, then you don't need a dedicated FTP program to upload and edit your website, you can use Internet Explorer as your FTP program instead.

To use Internet Explorer as an FTP program, all you need to do is to type the address of the FTP server into the address bar instead of a web (HTTP) address. For example, if your website is at http://www.yourdomain.com, and the FTP server your host has told you to use is ftp.yourdomain.com, to connect to FTP with Internet explorer you would type ftp://ftp.yourdomain.com into the address bar. The ftp:// part of the URL tells the browser that it is an FTP server, not a HTTP server, such as it is used to.

A dialog box will usually appear asking for your username and password. Simply type those in as your web host has given them to you. If, instead of a dialog box appearing, some public folders load in the window, this means that public FTP is installed. To log in to your own FTP account, go to File>Login As and type in your username and password.

Once you are connected to your FTP account, you will see a list of all of the files and sub-directories on your site just like you see when you open a folder on your own computer. You can then use your browser window like a windows folder, and open, rename, move, copy, and delete the files in your FTP account as if it were a folder on your own computer. You can transfer files and directories (folders) between folders on your own computer and the FTP browser window by hilighting, dragging and dropping them.

Easy, huh?