CFA FTP Account Help
If you do not yet have an FTP account for the CFA web server, please submit the account request form. Remember, accounts on CFA web servers are not intended for use as personal web sites. Sites must be related to employment, research, or coursework at the University.
Using an FTP client
An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client is an application that transfers files from your computer to the server. Some HTML editors have FTP services built in (such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver), so you wouldn't need a stand-alone client to move files from your computer to the server. If you aren't using an editor that has built-in FTP services, you will need a stand-alone client to transfer your finished files to the server.
Suggested client software: Fetch, Transmit , or Captain FTP (OS X only) for Macintosh; FileZilla, CuteFTP or WS_FTP for Windows
Refer to the user guide or manual for your particular client for the specifics of connecting to an FTP server, but the following connection settings are applicable to all. In other words, these are the pieces of information you'll need, though your client may have different labels for them.
Connection settings
Host or server name: web.cfa.arizona.edu
Note: don't include http:// in this fieldUsername or User ID: the username you requested on http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/ftp
Password: the password you requested on http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/ftp
Directory or host folder: leave this empty
(Cynthia can send you an email reminder of your username or password if you've forgotten them. Remember that the username is not case sensitive, but the password is.)
Naming Files & Case Sensitivity
An "index" page is the file the web server uses as the "main page" for a web site or internal directory within a web site. This index file is the file shown in a web browser when a url ends with a directory instead of a file name.
For instance, http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/camerata/ is a url that ends in a directory. The name of the actual file that gets displayed in a browser, when this url is used, is "index.html". An example of a url that ends in a file name would be: http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/camerata/what_is.html. This tells the server to display the file named "what_is.html" in the browser.
The web.cfa.arizona.edu web server recognizes the following file names as "index" pages:
- index.html
- index.htm
- index.php
- home.html
- home.htm
- home.php
- default.html
- default.htm
- default.php
Note that if you do not have a file inside your directory with one of the above names, you will have to modify your url to include a file name or browsers will display an error page, as the web.cfa.arizona.edu server is not configured to allow directory browsing (that is, it will not display a list of file names people from which people can choose in the absence of an "index" file).
File names are not case sensitive on web.cfa.arizona.edu. For instance, INDEX.HTML will work, even if the file name is index.html.
Can I use ...?
CGI? Nope.
PHP? Yes, if your account is on web.cfa.arizona.edu.
SSI? Nope.
MySQL? Requests for MySQL databases are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but they are available. Contact Cynthia if your project or course requirement includes the need for a MySQL database.
Contact Cynthia if you have any questions or problems uploading your site.