Step-by-step instructions to connect a FTP server

FTP client for Android handsets.
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support
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Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:40 pm

Step-by-step instructions to connect a FTP server

Post by support »

You need to connect to your first FTP server with AndFTP and you're not sure how to do it ?
Here are instructions:

1 - Setup the FTP connection
When you launch AndFTP, it displays a SplashScreen (a few seconds), then it displays the settings screen where you need to select your FTP settings. On the first install you can only click on "Add" button. So, click this button and a new screen will be display with a form to define the following FTP settings. Only the three first are mandatory to make it works.
- FTP URL: It's the URL of your FTP server. It must starts with ftp://. For instance, if your FTP server is hosted by mirror.cs.princeton.edu server, then URL must be: ftp://mirror.cs.princeton.edu. Default FTP port is 21, if you have an FTP server that doesn't listen to port 21 then you can setup it in URL too. For instance, if your servers listen on port 8021 then URL must be: ftp://mirror.cs.princeton.edu:8021
- FTP login: This field is the username of the account allowed to access the FTP server. For public FTP server, you can fill in anonymous.
- FTP password: This field is the password the account allowed to access the FTP server. For public FTP server, you can fill any email address such as test@test.com
- Local directory: This field is optional, it's the local device directory the application will go by default when the FTP connection is established. If you have a SDCARD then fill in /sdcard, that's way when you will display the local file manager (to select a file) then you will see your SDCARD content. If you don't fill in this field then you will be able to see all root folders of your Android device. Notice that it's important to always starts with /
- Remote directory: This field is optional, it's the remote FTP directory the application will go by default when the FTP connection is established. If you don't fill in this field then you will be able to see root folders of your FTP server. Notice that it's important to always starts with /
- Charset: This field is optional, it's for non-Ascii filenames. Use UTF-8 for Chinese characters.
- Resume: This checkbox is optional, it allows enabling resume support for broken transfer.

Notice that FTP connection is done in passive mode because Android device doesn't accept incoming connections.

When you've filled in the form then click "Save" button. A pop-up appears to label your settings, name it as you want. This name will be used in the first screen (in the dropdown list). Finally, click "Ok" button.

2 - Connect to your FTP server
Now, you're back to the first screen with a first connection setup. You can click "Edit" button if you think you've made a mistake in the settings. If everything is correct, then click "Connect" button. AndFTP will connect to the FTP server. If an error occurs (such as Invalid login/password) then it will display it. You might need to wait a little if you're connecting to a FTP server that doesn't exist.

3 - File Managers

Now, you should see the remote FTP folder(s). You can browser each directory. You can also select some files. All operations on FTP files (delete, rename, permission) are available through the "Menu" button on your device. You can switch to the local device file manager by clicking "Device file browser" button. Operations on device files (delete, rename, copy) are also available through "Menu" device button. You will notice that some files cannot be deleted or renamed because they are system files. All your files (images, documents ...) on /sdcard could be modified, deleted ...

4 - Upload and Download files
AndFTP allows uploading files from you Android device to your FTP server. AndFTP also allows downloading files from your FTP server to your Android device SDCARD. To download files, switch to FTP file browser, select one or many files and click "Download" button. Files will be downloaded in the last folder you were on Android device. For instance, if you were in /sdcard before switching to FTP file browser then files will be downloaded in /sdcard. Upload feature is similar.

Does it help ?

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