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Web Basics: Browser-Based FTP

When you use the Mozilla Composer program to publish webpages and images to your OU webspace, you are "uploading" files to that webspace. Yet you might also find yourself in a situation where you want to "download" all your files, making a copy of what you have published on your local hard drive (this is useful, for example, if you have had trouble with your computer and had to replace the hard drive). You might also want to manage your OU webspace, deleting old files that you don't need anymore. In order to download or delete files, you cannot use Mozilla Composer; instead, you need to use an FTP program.

There are many FTP programs you can use. If you want to contact IT Help at 325-HELP, they can probably recommend several different programs that interact well with the way your OU webspace is configured.

The program that I use is a plug-in for the Firefox browser called FireFTP. It is a free program and works with the Firefox web browser in both Windows and Mac. If you want to use the FireFTP program to download or delete files from your OU webspace, you can follow these instructions.

1. Download and install the FireFTP plug-in by going to the FireFTP webpage and following the instructions there. (For this to work, you must already have installed the Firefox browser on your computer.)

2. After you have installed FireFTP, it will show up under the Tools Menu in your Firefox browser:

3. After you click the FireFTP option in tool menu, a screen will pop up showing two panels - one panel contains all the files on your local computer, and the other panel will contain the files on the remote location. The first time you connect to the OU webspace as your remote location, you need to click on Manage Accounts, and then select New. You only need to do this once; after you create this New account, you will be able to use it whenever you want to access your OU webspace.

4. When you select New from the Manage Accounts menu, a dialog box will pop up. You need to enter the name of this account ("OU webspace" or something like that), and you need to enter the name of the remote server, which is simply students.ou.edu (or faculty-staff.ou.edu, if your OU webspace is on the server for faculty and staff). For the login, enter your OUNet ID (4x4), and for the password, enter your regular OU password for the password to the account.

5. Now you should see the new account show up in the Accounts box, and you can click on Connect to connect to your account.

6. When you connect successfully, you should see all your webpage and image files in the remote location panel.

• To navigate from folder to folder, just click on the folder you want to open, and you will see the files and subfolders displayed.
• You can use the arrows pointing between the two panels to move files between your local computer and the remote location.
• To delete a file, just right-mouse click and choose the DELETE option.
• For additional features and functions, click on the Help link in the upper-right-hand corner of the FireFTP window.

7. When you are done, make sure you close the FireFTP tab in your browser.