If you want to upload your web site from your computer to your Active Web Hosting web (or CGI) serer, you'll need an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Client. Most FTP Clients (or programs) are easy to use. Some have more features and some are more suited for beginners.

When you are looking for a good FTP program, think about what you intend to upload, and your computer skill level. Most any FTP program will work with Active Web Hosting's servers.

If you are a complete beginner, you will want an FTP program that is mostly icon-based. One that you can simply click on a picture icon to get the job done. You also want one that is easy to set up. WS_FTP Home, Ace FTP, and CoffeeCup FTP are good choices for Windows Users. If you are getting into Linux, KBear (for use in the KDE desktop environment) is an easy to use program.

If you are an advanced user, then most any FTP program would work. It would depend on what is comfortable for you to use. If you intend to upload scripts to your CGI server, you'll want an FTP program that will let you also view dot files (files that start with a dot and do not have a filename, as one would consider the definition of a filename in Windows). One really good program for this is FileZilla. Other programs may also have this ability, which you may have to turn on in options or configuration settings in the FTP program.

If you are using a web editor such as DreamWeaver MX 2004 or Front Page 2003, we have tutorials on how to use these to upload your files. Keep in mind that the web server we provide you does not support Front Page extensions, so you'll need to be sure that pages you create in Front Page are regular HTML files.

If you are using Windows XP, you may have noticed that in Windows Explorer, there's a place called My Network Places. While it is easy to think that this would be ideal for uploading your web files directly to the server, this won't work reliably. Check out Using Windows XP's My Network Places for more information on this.

Whichever program you choose, do be sure to read the manual or help files for the FTP program you are using.