FTP help!

[Josh42]

I'm making my first web page. I have files that I would would like others to be able to download off my site. I realize I need to use FTP, but how? What does this require? Thanks!

[qball]

howsa bout (methinks):


<a ftp://host.domain:port/pathname>ftp</a>


":port" not necessary iffin using default port.


colon P is a smiley I see...

[Josh42]

hmmm, so if my site was called
"http://www.mysite.com" what would I type? Still not sure how this works. . .

[dragonB]

Josh,
it depends..
If you are running your own site on your own machine(complete with ip address and domain name) then you need to have an ftp server installed.
There's quite a few good free ones out there.
If you are having it hosted by someone else..(pay for it, or a free one like geocities or angelfire) then you need to check the documents there and they will show you how to set it up. I'm pretty sure most of the free sites don't allow ftp, except you personally ftp'ing into them to update your website.

Either way, to have ftp links on your website, it's best with an anonymous ftp login, which most sites won't allow, so you'd have to host your own.

But...
You said that you want people to be able to click to download files..
http can still be used. Just put the link, if it's something their browser doesn't understand as an extension(like .htm, .html, .asp, .php, etc) then it will ask them if they want to save the file, they do, and it downloads. Thus, no need for ftp