Configure AbsoluteFTP for Windows
| AbsoluteFTP has been discontinued by its manufacturer, and we recommend you use WinSCP instead. However, the Boston University site license still works, for now, so we leave these instructions here for people who might need them. |
If you have installed AbsoluteFTP, you should be able to open AbsoluteFTP from the Start menu, and/or from a Shortcut icon on your Desktop.
As with any Internet application, in order to use AbsoluteFTP you must be connected to the Internet via Ethernet or modem.
Public and Password-Protected FTP Sites
You can use AbsoluteFTP to access the different kinds of FTP sites. Public or "Anonymous" FTP sites are open to anyone who wishes to retrieve information from them. Usually you cannot upload to public FTP sites, but you can download any of the information that they provide for use on your own computer. When you first open AbsoluteFTP you will see that it provides you with a very helpful directory of public FTP sites to get you started. BU also has its own public FTP site which is ftp.bu.edu.
Password-protected FTP sites are directories on a server from which you can upload and download files. Typically, at BU, you might upload and download from your own ACS account (acs.bu.edu) with an FTP program. You would also need an FTP program to upload files to your personal Web site at people.bu.edu. FTP programs can also be used to delete or rename files, or create folders (directories) on these servers.
When you open AbsoluteFTP you will see the Connect dialog box. Conveniently, this box provides lengthy lists of the many public FTP sites that you can explore on your own later. But for now, let's go ahead and add BU's FTP site to this list, so you can have it in the menu, and use it now for practice.
Go ahead and click on the New Session button on the menu bar.
Into the New Session Wizard, type ftp.bu.edu as the Host address. Then click on Next.
Anonymous FTP sites use your e-mail address as the password. Provide your full e-mail address, as described here using jschmoe@bu.edu
Leave the initial directory blank and click on Next.
If you want to, provide a description for the server we have just set up, then click on Finish.
You will notice that ftp.bu.edu has been added to your menu of FTP sites, so now you can access it quickly and easily.
Set Up Your Own (Password-Protected) Sites
Before we learn how to work with these sites, let's add your own (password-protected) servers to the list as well. Using Joan Schmoe’s ACS account as an example, repeat the steps described above noting these differences:
For Your ACS Account
The Host address is acs.bu.edu.
The login is not anonymous. Remove the "Anonymous login" option and provide your username and your BU Kerberos password. (If you are on a secure computer such as one in your home, it is safe to provide the password, otherwise leave it blank and you will be prompted for it as needed.)
For
Your Account on the Public Web Server
(Note: You must first sign up for a Web account at people.bu.edu.)
Repeat the steps described for your ACS account but, this time the Host address is people.bu.edu.
As with the ACS account, the login is not anonymous. Remove the "Anonymous login" option and provide your username and your BU Kerberos password. (If you are on a secure computer such as one in your home, it is safe to provide the password, otherwise leave it blank and you will be prompted for it as needed.)
Now that your menu of likely servers is set up, all you have to do to access one of them is double click on it in the list. (If you did not define a password when doing the settings, you will then be prompted for the required password.)
The user interface for AbsoluteFTP is deliberately designed to look just like the Explorer menu in Windows. So, hopefully, you will be somewhat used to working with directories this way.
Let's imagine that you are going to download something:
We'll use the BU FTP site for practice. After you double click on ftp.bu.edu in the menu, the site will open up and you will be able to view the directory structure.
In the window on the upper left, you would want to work your way down the directory structure toward the desired directory. You do this just by clicking on the series of folders/sub-folders) until you find what you're looking for.
Just as an example, let's imagine that we want to download QVT, a telnet client. To do this, you would work your way down from pub->pc->internet-tools->telnet->win95 just by clicking. Once you are in the proper directory, the window on the right will list the files that you can choose from.
Once you see the file you want, position your windows in such a way that you can literally drag the desired item (in this case, qvtnet40.zip) from the FTP site to the icon representing your own Desktop. A progress window will let you know that the download is working, and then you will be able to find the desired item on your own Desktop.
AS AN ALTERNATIVE to repositioning your windows, you can do a right click on the item you want to download, and choose Download from the menu.
This is more complicated than dragging to the Desktop because you have to indicate which directory you want to download into, and click on OK. (What you might want to do is create a Shortcut of this directory to your Desktop, so you will always know where to find things. In this case, for example, I could make a shortcut of "My Download Files" and keep that on my Desktop.)
Let's imagine that you are going to upload something to your ACS account or Web server account:
For practice, let's upload a file called "sample.htm" to my account on people.bu.edu.
As described above, navigate to the correct directories just by clicking. Then, also as described above, position the windows in such a way that you can easily drag and drop files between your own computer and the FTP site. In this case we are doing this to upload a file. The graphic below shows that, just by dragging, I have uploaded sample.htm from an "upload" folder (that I created on my PC with a Shortcut on my Desktop) to a directory in my people.bu.edu account.
Managing Files and Directories
Finally, when you are making Web pages and cleaning or organizing your ACS account, you may need to delete or rename files, or create new directories.
You can delete or rename a file very easily, just do a right click on the file and choose Delete or Rename from the menu.
You can also create a new directory very easily. Just click on the directory (folder) within which you want to create a new folder, choose File->New->Folder from the menu and give the new folder a name:
Help, I Lost the Connect Window!
You can always find your list of FTP sites by opening it from the main menu for AbsoluteFTP.
