How To Link To FTP Information

All Web "browser" programs understand the "FTP" protocol, so it is very easy to make links on your WWW pages that point to FTP files and menus. We are speaking of "anonymous" FTP here. While it is possible to use other forms of FTP, this is usually not done where "anonymous" access is provided, due to security concerns.

For instance, here is how you make a link into the top level of our "anonymous" FTP area:

<HREF="ftp://ftp.uwm.edu/">UWM FTP</A>

This doesn't show you much about the linking process, but if you follow the above link and navigate the ftp menus until you get where you want to be, your browser will show you the URL (Web link) to use in order to link there directly. Please note that the preferred name of our anonymous FTP service is "ftp.uwm.edu" - Though other names will work, please use this official name in your links.

Here's a link to the "pub" area, where Alpha users can place files for "anonymous" FTP retrieval:

<HREF="ftp://ftp.uwm.edu/pub/">UWM FTP pub</A>

Here is how you could link to a plain file::

<HREF="ftp://ftp.uwm.edu/pub/internetwork-mail-guide">Mail Doc</A>

Remember, if you can't figure out what a link should be, start at the top of the ftp tree with a Web browser, go through the ftp directories until you get where you want, and see what the browser displays as a URL.

How to Set Up Alpha FTP Information

Alpha account holders can make directories of files in the subdirectory "~ftp/pub" for people to obtain using "anonymous" FTP. We suggest that you first make a subdirectory using your login name or an easily recognized name of what you're putting there:

mkdir ~ftp/pub/yourlogin

Then copy your files into your FTP directory:

cp files ~ftp/pub/yourlogin

Finally, make sure that the files are publicly readable:

mkpub ~ftp/pub/yourlogin/*

People can then obtain your files using FTP:

ftp ftp.uwm.edu cd pub/yourlogin get file ...

and you or anyone else may make WWW links to these files as described above.

Last update: July 5, 2000. --- URL: http://www.uwm.edu/info/how2FTP.html
Copyright 2000 by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, all rights reserved.
If you have questions or comments about this page please send e-mail to: www@uwm.edu