Getting Started with BulletProof FTP Client
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Your First Connection
We will use an example connection to one of our own FTP Servers here that has been created to allow you to learn the process of connecting to an FTP site and transferring files. The process once learned, is the same for connecting to any server such as your ISP or webhost.
Downloading BPFTP Client
If you haven't already, you will need to download the BPFTP Client application and install it. The program is free to download and use, fully functional, for 30 days. Which should give you plenty of time to decide if it is right for, like so many others have since 1997.
To download, go to this page: http://bpftp.com/products/bpftpclient/windows/download and click on the Click here for free download link at the bottom. This will open another page and trigger the download automatically as seen in the picture below. Simply select to save the download you are offered, choose somewhere you can access easily such as your Windows desktop.
Installing
After the download has completed you should have an icon named bpftpclient_install-XXX.exe (the XXX will vary by version, you now have the latest) on your desktop as below.
To start the installation process, double click (click twice with the left mouse button) on the icon. This will open the installer. You can read the installation information, or safely click next 5 times, then the install button and once done the finish button. By default, unless you unchecked the box on the last window, BPFTP Client will now launch.
First Look
The first time your run BPFTP Client it will give you a window like the one below. We'll explain the different parts f it as we may your first connection to an FTP site. But basically the window is divided up into 4 panes:
1. Log Window Pane: Shows your FTP transfer activity. Can mostly be ignored. [Top] 2. Local Window Pane: Shows the files on your computer. [Middle-Left] 3. Remote Window Pane: Shows the files on the FTP Server you are connect to. [Middle-Right] 4. Queue Window Pane: Shows the files you have queued to upload/download before they are transferred. [Bottom]
The Site Manager
The first thing you need to do when wanting to connect to an FTP site is enter the connection details. You can do this into the "quick connect" bar near the top of the main BPFTP Client window if you want but if you are going to be connecting multiple times then you should go to the Site Manager, where you store your FTP site bookmarks.
You open the sitemanager by pressing the icon that looks like an open book with arrows on it on the main toolbar to the top of the BPFTP Client window. The window below will pop up.
In this window are a number of empty boxes, some are necessary to make a connection, some are optional. Basically you fill out the boxes then click the add/update button and you FTP site information is saved.
In our example, below is listed the information you should enter into each box.
- Site Name: my first connection
- Site Address: learnhow.bpftp.com
- Port: 21
- Login: learnhow
- Password: bpftp
- Initial Local Directory: Click browse and select a directory on your computer with some files to test with.
- Initial Remote Directory: Leave this blank.
When done your site manager will look like this, once it does press the add/update button.
Connecting
Now just press the connect button which will have become available when you added the site. The Site Manager window will close and BPFTP will, if you entered the information correctly, connect. The first thing you will see if so is another window pop up as below. This is the "welcome message" from the FTP server, just click OK.
Once past the welcome message you will see BPFTP Client's main window again and it will look similar to the picture below. The Log, Local and Remote windows panes are no longer blank. In the Log Window is some technical "stuff" from the FTP server about your connection (all but expert users can ignore this). More importantly, in the middle-right window pane, the remote pane, you can now see the files on the FTP Server you just connected to. In the middle-left pane you should see the files in the directory on your own PC that you selected above.
Changing Directories
Just like on your own computer, files on an FTP Server are arranged into folders. often when you first login you will not be in the folder you need to be. For instance many webhosts have a directory named "www", "htdocs", "public_html" or similar which is where any files you wish to appear on your website must go. This is the case with our example. To change directory you need to double click on the yellow folder icon with the word "public_html". BPFTP Client will now change the directory. You will see some text scroll up the top log window and in the remote window where you just clicked, a new file listing will appear as in the picture below.
Uploading
Uploading is the process of transferring a file from your PC to the FTP Server. It is very easy. Simply select a file (or folder) from the local (middle-left) window which lists files on your PC by clicking on it and holding your mouse button down (the text around the file name will turn grey) then drag the file to the remote window to the right. Just keep your finger down on the left mouse button as you drag and let go when the file is anywhere over the middle-right or remote window. Just like moving a file in Windows. Once done the queue window pane will change as below. For testing purposes we suggest selecting a small file, we will delete it from the FTP Server in a later step.
If you look at the queue window pane at the bottom you will see there is an item in it. An arrow (pointing from left to right, local to remote, meaning upload) and then the file name o the file you just dragged. This file has not yet been transferred. It is in the queue waiting. At this point you could select other files for upload and they too would appear in the queue so you could transfer them all in one go. For our example we will just stick to one file.
To complete the uploading look at the toolbar of icons above the queue listing. The icon we want is the first on the left, the folder with a green arrow on it. All you need to do is click once on this and BPFTP Client will transfer the files.
After uploading you will see the contents of the remote window pane change again. You should see the file you just uploaded listed there as shown below.
Downloading
Downloading is the process of transferring files from a remote FTP Server to your local computer. It is the mirror image of uploading. It is accomplished in the same way. For our example we suggest you change your local directory (select the right most icon of three on the local middle-left window pane and a normal Windows file browser window will pop up, select your desktop) to your desktop. Then using the same process as uploading, but in reverse, drag the file you just uploaded from the remote window to the local. Then start the download transfer by clicking on the queue toolbar button again.
Once done the queue will be empty and your file you uploaded, and now downloaded, will appear in your local window again. if you selected your desktop you can switch away from BPFTP client to your desktop to confirm the file is definitely there and that you have succeeded! We'll now delete the file from the server you uploaded. (Uploading and downloading a file does not remove a file and put it somewhere else, it merely copies it so the original is still there.) Deleting
To delete a file from the server, you simply click on the file name and press the Delete key on your keyboard as if highlighting text to delete it in a word processor document. Again the file will queue, not actually delete. So just press the queue action button to finalize it. BPFTP Client will do its thing and the file will have disappeared from the remote window.
We're back where we started and our lesson on your first connection is done, congratulations!
