WordPress® All-in-One For Dummies®

Introducing FTP Concepts

This section introduces you to the basic elements of File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The ability to use FTP with your hosting account is a given for almost every Web host on the market today. FTP is a way of moving files from one place to another, such as:

• Uploading: Transferring files from your local computer to your Web server
• Downloading: Transferring files from your Web server to your local computer

You can do several other things with FTP, including the following, which we discuss later in this chapter:

• View files: After you log in via FTP, you can see all the files that are located on your Web server.
• View Date Modified: You can see the date a file was last modified, which can sometimes be helpful when trying to troubleshoot problems.
• View file size: You can see the size of each file on your Web server, which is helpful if you need to manage the disk space on your account.
• Edit files: Almost all FTP clients allow you to open and edit files through the client interface, which is a convenient way to get the job done.
• Change permissions: Commonly referred to as CHMOD, it controls what type of read/write/execute permissions the files on your Web server have.

FTP is a convenient utility that gives you access to the files located on your Web server, making managing your WordPress Web site a bit easier.