Editing or Uploading Your Web Site
You can access your site folder by sFTP (not FTP)… and in some cases AFP from Mac systems. I highly recommend using sFTP wherever possible. It’s faster, more reliable and more secure than the other options. This is especially true if you’re connecting from a Windows system. You can use a stand alone program to access your site or you might choose to use the FTP/sFTP capabilities that are built into your site management/editor such as Dreamweaver. Many programs that offer FTP also offer sFTP support however that’s not always true when looking at the no cost program versions. For open source software that does support sFTP look at FileZilla (Mac and Windows versions) or WinSCP (Windows only). My personal choices for sFTP tools are Fetch ($25) for Mac and WinSCP for Windows; or Dreamweaver when I need full site management. Coupling Fetch with BBEdit on a Mac makes a very efficient way to connect and do basic editing without a lot of frills. This combo lets you open files right off the server and save them back when done. While Dreamweaver is great for full site management; and all sorts of design and error checking tools, all those features make it considerably more complex. I use it when I need it but for just changing a couple of lines of code, Fetch/BBEdit is far more efficient. Here’s some screen shots of how to configure the settings in various pieces of software:
click the images below to see a larger view.
Note: When in doubt, leave the initial folder or initial directory field blank.
That will connect you at the root level of your access from there you’ll see an
obvious folder where your site should go. On more recently setup sites,
I’ve standardized on using “http-docs” to hold your site.
In most software, if you leave the port number blank, it will use the default.
The default is the correct choice. FileZilla is an exception.
You must specify port 22 to get an sFTP connection.
SFTP Connection with Fetch
Dreamweaver CS4 basic settings panel
Advanced remote server settings in Dreamweaver
WinSCP sFTP Connection Settings