Using WS_FTP and Internet Explorer to transfer files to & from class accounts

Using WS_FTP for class accounts

Background
Each student has an account on a server. Most students are on studentserv.lynchburg.edu. The name of the directory associated with this account is your last name, followed by an underscore, followed by your first inital. For example, John Smith's directory is called smith_j. In this directory you should create a subdirectory for this course. For example, the subdirectory associated with CS370A should be called CS-370A.

Transferring a file
In order to transfer a file from your local PC to your directory on studentserv.lynchburg.edu follow the instructions below.

Launch the program WS_FTP. It is normally found on the desktop or under START - Programs.
You will see the Connect dialog box. It is labelled Session Profile.
The session profile you will see already in the box is probably not the one you need to connect to your account. You will need to click the NEW button to create a new session profile.
Next you must fill in the pertinent information about how to connect to your account on the studentserv computer.
- Profile Name - The profile name is only used for identification. You might want to call it My server account.
- Host Name - This is the name of the computer you want to connect to. I.e., studentserv.lynchburg.edu.
- Host Type - Leave this as Automatic detect.
- User ID - This is your user name in the form lastname_firstinitial. You may need to precede your username with lynchburg-edu\ so that your login can be validated by the domain controller. For example, John Smith will specify lynchburg-edu\smith_j for his username.
- Password - Leave this blank. The system will ask you for your password.
- Make sure that all other boxes are blank.
Next, press OK and the system will ask you for your password.
Enter your password and press OK.
You should now see two windows on your screen. The right window contains the directories and files of the computer you have connected to (studentserv). The left window contains the files in a directory (ususlly C:/ftp) on your local PC.
In the right window (remote computer, studentserv) move into your class directory..
In the left window (local PC) move to the drive and directory that contains the file(s) you desire to transfer to studentserv.
Highlight the file you wish to transfer (actually copy) by clicking on it once.
Between the two windows are arrows. Press the key with the arrow (->) that is pointing from the left window to the right window.
After a short pause you will see the file that is highlighted in the left window appear in the right window. The transfer (copy) is now complete.
Similarly you can also copy files from your studentserv account to your local PC.
Click on Close to close the connection to studentserv.
Click on Exit to exit WS_FTP.

Using Internet Explorer to transfer files for class accounts

Internet Explorer may also be used as an ftp client. Simply type the URL of the machine you wish to connect to in the address window. However, to establish an ftp connection rather than a http (web browser) connection use "ftp" instead of "http" at the beginning of the URL. For some reason the ftp connection in some circumstances does not work properly using the domain name of the machine you wish to connect to so you may have to use the IP address of the machine.

An example

Suppose you wish to connect to the Computer Science netlab server using anonymous ftp.
The netlab server's host name is cs-netlab-01.lynchburg.edu and its IP address is 161.115.86.165.
So in the IE browser window type ftp://161.115.86.165
IE will automatically make an anonymous ftp connection and thus put you into the correct folder on the netlab machine.
From there you may move to other folders and/or download files simply by clicking on the folders/files.
Note that you will only be able to copy files from the server to your local PC - not the other direction.

To access the netlab server an even simpler approach that usually works is to use the following URL in the browser http://cs-netlab-01.lynchburg.edu/users/anonymous/

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