Uploading Files to Cloud Sites Using FTP

Pre-flight Check:

• Basic knowledge of FTP client usage is recommended.
• These instructions assume you already have an FTP client installed on your computer.
• A Liquid Web account with the Cloud Sites product will be necessary to follow along.

Upload site files to Cloud Sites via FTP

You may have heard of FTP—File Transfer Protocol. FTP moves files from your local computer to your website. However, FTP is not a secure file transfer method. Malicious attacks often target FTP.

SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a secure file transfer protocol similar to FTP. SFTP performs the same functions as FTP over an Secure Shell (SSH) connection. Just like FTP, you can use SFTP with a desktop FTP client. Most FTP clients, like Filezilla, CoreFTP, and Cyberduck support SFTP. We recommend you use SFTP with Cloud Sites by connecting via port 22.

Configuring Your FTP Client

When you connect to your FTP client, you’ll need your domain’s FTP server information (usually this is ftp.mysite.com, replacing “mysite.com” with your domain) and your FTP username and password.

1. Log into your Cloud Sites account.
2. Click on the website where you’ll be uploading your content.
   
3. Click on FTP to expand your site’s FTP information.
   
4. You’ll see an FTP server and a directory path listed. You can use this FTP server to add content to your site even if you haven’t yet registered your domain. After you register your domain, there are two ways to add content to your site:
   • The general FTP server ftp2.ftptoyoursite.com. This server can be used to add content to your site even if your domain registration or transfer has not yet completed.
   • The FTP server specific to your domain. It will use your domain name with the subdomain “ftp.”, this can only be used after your DNS is pointing to Cloud Sites.

   

5. To log into the FTP server, you’ll have to create an FTP user. In the FTP section, click the Create User button.
   
6. Enter a username for your FTP user, then enter and confirm a strong password.
   
7. Use the folder listing to choose the folders you’d like your user to be able to access. Your public web content will all be uploaded to www.mysite.com/web/content. Then click Create New User.
   
8. Now that you have an FTP username and password, open the FTP program of your choice. In this example, we’ll be using Filezilla, which has a quick connection option. Enter your FTP server address, your FTP username and password, and designate port 22 as the connection port. Then click Connect to start your FTP session.
   

Once you’ve opened an FTP connection to your server, you’re all set to start uploading the files you need. Your public web content should be uploaded to www.mysite.com/web/content, but you can upload files to any accessible directory you would like.