Installing Wordpress Part 1: File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Once you have found a Wordpress Friendly website Host you will need to know a little bit about using FTP in installing your Wordpress files.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is the fastest way to transfer files from a computer to a website. Knowing how to FTP is essential to installing Wordpress and will be used to move the Wordpress script files to your website host server. The website server is where all website files are stored.

Most FTP software is provided free through the Internet. FileZilla is one of the well known free FTP clients available and can be downloaded here.

Connecting To the Website Server

Before connecting to your website through an FTP client, you will want to make sure your domain name is set up with a hosting account and all name servers have had time to propagate. In order to connect to your web hosting server through FileZilla you will need the following information:

URL – An URL is needed when connecting to your server via FTP. In most FTP clients the website URL should be sufficient. However some website hosts also provide you with an FTP URL, or you can set one up yourself. The FTP URL can also be used to connect to your server via FTP. The URL will need to go into the “address” field when connecting to the website server via an FTP client.

Username – Most website hosts will give you an FTP or Cpanel username when setting up a new hosting account. In your FTP client you will want to enter this username provided in order to connect to the server.

Password – Again when setting up a hosting account your web host will provide an FTP or Cpanel password which will also be needed in order to connect to the server via FTP.

Port – A port number is how a server identifies the message that has arrived via FTP. For most servers the default port number for transferring files is 21.

Now that we know what information is needed to connect to our server via FTP. We will now look at some other definitions that are good to know when using an FTP client to transfer files to your website.

Local Site – Most FTP clients have a side where the “local site” files are listed. The local site is also known as your computer, and the files listed are the files stored on your computer. All the files being uploaded to your web hosts server will be found under “local site.”

Remote Site – The remote site is where all the files hosted on the website host server are listed. When installing Wordpress all of the script files will be transferred from the local site (your computer) to the remote site (your website.)

Learning how to transfer files to your website via FTP can be a bit overwhelming at first. However practice makes perfect, and you will soon get the hang of using an FTP client to transfer files from your computer to your website. FTP is definitely a skill that opens many doors to help grow any online website.

P.S. At Girly Website Hosting we offer free Wordpress installation with ALL hosting packages!

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