Using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

This article discusses FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

What is FTP?

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a protocol that enables you to transfer files between your A2 Hosting account and another computer. FTP establishes a connection between a server (in this case, your account on an A2 Hosting server) and a client (your local computer). To make your website files accessible to the public, you use an FTP client to upload them to your A2 Hosting account on the server. You can also download files from your A2 Hosting account to your local computer.

The original FTP protocol does not encrypt data sent between the server and the client. Instead, we strongly recommend you use one of the following encrypted FTP connections to transfer files whenever possible:

• SFTP (Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol) is available for all our Linux hosting accounts. As its name implies, SFTP uses the underlying SSH (Secure Shell) protocol to encrypt file transfers. To transfer files using SFTP, you use the same username and password that you use to access cPanel and SSH.
• FTPS (FTP over SSL) is available for all our Windows hosting accounts.

Using an FTP client

The procedures for configuring an FTP client depend on the type of hosting account you have.

Linux hosting accounts

If you have an account that is hosted on a Linux server, please see this article for information about how to connect using FTP.

Windows hosting accounts

If you have an account that is hosted on a Windows server, please see this article for information about how to connect using FTP.

More Information

For more information about FTP, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol.