How to: Transfer large files with FTP

Overview

It is relatively straightforward to transfer small files as email attachments. However, the email system is unsuitable for transferring large files, and university email systems typically prevent files larger than 5MB being sent as attachments.

An alternative to emailing files is to use FTP (file transfer protocol).

This page has been developed in response to requests from the Geomatics department staff/student liason committee to assist Geomatics students with using FTP.

Addresses and usernames

FTP works in a similar way to the WWW. FTP servers have addresses like web servers (e.g."ftp.unimelb.edu.au"), and resources on an ftp server are organized into directories like web pages.

Unlike many web resources, accessing resources via ftp may require a username and password.

The system administrator for a particular server will be able to tell you if you are entitled to access the resources on a password protected FTP server, and if so how to find your username and password.

Download only using FTP

There is a variety of software packages you can use to transfer files with FTP.

If you only need to download files to a computer via FTP, using a web browser like Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Mozilla is often the simplest way.

Like web pages, files for FTP download can be accessed via a URL (uniform resource locator: the addresses for web pages).

FTP documents use the prefix "ftp" rather than the familiar "http" (hypertext transfer protocol) used for web pages. For example, using your web browser you should be able to download the following University of Melbourne file via ftp:

• ftp://ftp.unimelb.edu.au/pub/mail/eudora/eudoralight/windows/english/eul3manl.pdf
  (this is the PDF manual for the Eudora mail client)

The resource above is available via anonymous FTP (requires no usename and password). If you wish to download a file that requires a username an password, you can still do so using your web browser by prefixing the server name with your username and the "@" symbol, as the following example shows (ftp from WebRaft, input your own username in place of "mduckham"):

• ftp://mduckham@webraft.its.unimelb.edu.au/

When you attempt to access a restricted ftp resource in this way, you will be prompted by your web browser for your password.

Upload and download using FTP

Using a web browser for FTP download is simple, but you may find you need more sophisticated FTP client, especially if you use FTP a lot or need to upload files to a server.

There exists a wide range of FTP software freely and commercially available. Each FTP client is slightly different and has its own instructions for use.

Most university lab machines already have dedicated FTP clients installed on them, such as WS_FTP LE and the University of Melbourne Information Divison web site contains instructions for using WS_FTP LE.

Other free FTP software packages that you can download and install on your personal machines at home include SmartFTP (instructions on using SmartFTP), CoreFTP (instructions on using CoreFTP), and FireFTP (beta FTP client for Mozilla Firefox).