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General questions
- What is FTP?
- Where can I get an FTP program?
- What settings do I use to connect?
- What is Binary mode?
- What is ASCII mode?
- That's a pain! Any shortcuts?
- What is CHMOD?
- What is public_html for?
- It's missing, or I deleted it. What now?
Errors
- What is "Can't build data connection: Permission denied"?
- What does "No space left on device" mean?
- What does "Disk quota exceeded" mean?
- What does "Login incorrect" mean?
- Why are my sound/image/program files messed up?
General questions
Q: What is FTP?
A: FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a means of
transferring files from one computer to another, either using a network or the Internet.
In most cases you would use it to upload files to your site, although it can also be
used to download files from your site.
To do this you need a program called an FTP client, or login to the members' area and use the
browser based version. The built-in FTP utilities included with some page editors are not
usually very reliable.
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Q: Where can I get an FTP program?
A: There are many freeware and shareware versions available at sites like
spaceports.tucows.com (Mac versions too).
I use WS_FTP LE from www.ipswitch.com myself, and I also
have instructions for setting up and using it in the FTP section of
this site.
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Q: What settings do I use to connect?
A: This varies considerably, so you really need to refer to the email you were
sent when you signed up. However, you should be able to get a good idea from looking through
the FTP section - particularly the "getting connected" pages.
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Q: What is Binary mode?
A: In Binary mode a file is copied bit for bit from one machine to the
other. Both files (the original and the transferred file) will contain exactly the same
sequence of bytes.
It is used when uploading non-text files such as images, sounds, programs, .zip archives
etc.
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Q: What is ASCII mode?
A: In ASCII mode a file may be changed slightly to maintain the meaning of EOL
(End Of Line) characters. UNIX machines use a single line break character at the end of each
line, whereas Windows systems use a line break and a carriage return.
It is used when uploading text documents such as HTML, PHP, Perl CGI scripts and plain text
files.
Perl CGI scripts are particularly fussy about being uploaded in ASCII mode (the extra carriage
return inserted by Windows systems messes them up otherwise).
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Q: That's a pain! Any shortcuts?
A: Most FTP clients will have an automatic setting you can use.
You may need to add file extensions to the list of files it uploads in a particular mode.
WS_FTP LE requires that you list all file types you wish uploaded in ASCII mode (.cgi, .pl, .htm,
.html, .shtml, .php, .txt etc.)
Other FTP clients may work slightly differently.
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Q: What is CHMOD?
A: See the CGI-BIN FAQ for answers to CHMOD related
questions (there are several).
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Q: What is public_html for?
A: All files and directories for your site must go inside public_html to be
visible from the Web.
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Q: It's missing, or I deleted it. What now?
A: If it's your 'planet' account, then just create a new one.
If it's a CGI-BIN site, create a new one, and then set the permissions to 755 (drwxr-xr-x).
If you don't tell anybody, nobody will know! (Just be more careful in future).
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Errors
Q: What is "Can't build data connection: Permission
denied"?
A: This error is usually caused by trying to connect to the CGI-BIN server,
when your FTP client is not set to Passive (PASV) Mode.
Changing the settings should solve this.
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Q: What does "No space left on device" mean?
A: This error occurs when the server has physically run out of hard drive
space. All you can do is inform the Spaceports staff via the forums or IRC and then wait as
patiently as you are able.
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Q: What does "Disk quota exceeded" mean?
A: This error occurs when you have reached one of the limits on your site.
For 'planet' servers that means you've filled up your allocated space and you will need to apply
for more. On the CGI-BIN server, you have either reached 10Mb or 1000 files, which means you
need to delete any unwanted files before you can continue uploading.
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Q: What does "Login incorrect" mean?
A: You have supplied the wrong username and password combination for the
server you are trying to connect to.
Make sure that you aren't trying to use your 'planet' account password to connect to the CGI-BIN
server, or vice versa.
Check your username and password for errors, bearing in mind that the servers are case sensitive
and that a lowercase letter 'l' can be confused with the number '1' and an uppercase letter 'O' can
look similar to the number '0'.
Finally, check the server/host name for errors.
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Q: Why are my sound/image/program files messed up?
A: If they are okay on your own machine, but not on the server, you probably
uploaded them in ASCII mode instead of Binary mode.
You'll need to upload them again using the right upload mode.
The same thing can happen if you download files from the server to your computer in the wrong
mode.
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