Software: FTPrimer

Stephen Smith

Oftentimes, as a musician, it will be important to share digital audio and other files with the people you’re working with. You may need to distribute marketing materials or transfer session tracks from one studio to another. There are a variety of technologies available to help you do this and just as many hosts who will provide the server backend for it: HTTP, FTP, if your studio really loves you: SCP, if you have more fans than bandwidth: BitTorrent, etc.

However, most likely you’re going to end up using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or it’s more-secure counterpart SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). Setting up and running your own FTP server is way beyond the scope of this post, so we’re going to talk about how to connect to someone else’s.

So someone just handed you a piece of paper with some gibberish on it and told you to upload the files to the FTP server. What now?

First you verify that you have all the information. You need three things before you can use an FTP server:
1. Server – What computer are you connecting to? This will either be a URL (such as ftp.example.com) or an IP address (like 123.45.67.89).
2. User name – What name will you type in when prompted to log in?
3. Password – What password will you type in when prompted to log in?
It’s also possible that the server is configured to allow anonymous access, which means you won’t need a username or password.

Next, you need an FTP client. Most operating systems come with one built-in, but sometimes these aren’t very good. If you find that your system’s built-in FTP client just isn’t working, try finding a 3rd party solution.

This is probably the most complicated part of using FTP. A good client can make all the difference between a pleasant and an excruciating experience. Investigate different FTP clients, and pick the one that seems to work best for your needs.

I’m a masochist who likes to think he’s smarter than everyone, so I personally mostly use a command-line FTP client (Either Linux’s ftp command, or Cygwin’s version of the same.) If you’re 1337 enough to do that, you might as well stop reading this. I have nothing to teach you.

The point of that aside was to inform you that I don’t really know which FTP client you should use. I’ve heard good things about Cyberduck for the Mac and Filezilla for the PC (and Mac too), but I have no experience with either.

Now to connect to the server:
First, you’ll boot up your client. Most clients have a text bar at the top (similar to the URL bar in Windows Explorer or your web browser). Connecting to the server is usually as simple as typing the name of the server in that bar. Sometimes, you’ll have to preface it with “ftp://”.

For example, if you’re connecting using Windows Explorer to connect to example.com’s FTP server, you would open any explorer window and type “ftp://example.com” (without the quotes) into the bar near the top.

If the server is anonymous, you’re done! You should now be able to view the folder the same way as any other folder on your computer and drag and drop folders between the two.
There is a caveat to this: It’s possible the server is set up with multiple access levels. If a password prompt comes up even though you’ve been told that the server is anonymous, you may have to do one of several things depending on configuration.
1. Type in a username. A lot of servers expect you to identify yourself in some way even if it doesn’t care who you are. Try typing in some username at random and connecting like that. You may also try “guest” and “anonymous”.
2. Cancel out of the prompt. It might be that the server or your client brings up a prompt even if it isn’t neccesary. Try canceling it and moving on.

It’s also worth noting that very few FTP servers allow anonymous write access.  This means that if you’re connecting this way, you will probably be able to download files that others have posted, but you will not be able to upload any of your own.

If the server isn’t anonymous, once you connect to the server initially, it will prompt you for a user name and password. Type in the user name and password that you were given, and you should be good to go. If it doesn’t work, try it again. Some servers are finickity and reject your first login attempt on general principles. Make sure you spell everything exactly the way you were told to. If you were given a username of the form user@example.com make sure to include the @example.com part; a lot of servers insist on that.

That’s it. A good administrator will make sure that the connection information you get for the server will be correct. Just type it in correctly, and you’ll be able to connect no problem.

And if in doubt, RTFM.

FTP primer for musicians and total n00bs