What is FTP? FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is the system used to transfer files from one computer system to another. In this guide, you'll learn the basics of what you need to know to successfully use an FTP program.

First of all, let's learn what you can do with FTP.

What FTP Can Do?

FTP is a wonderful tool that can be used for a variety of tasks, all dealing with the administration of server-hosted information. The information that may be manipulated through FTP includes software, individual pages, programs, images, and much more. FTP allows you from your computer to access the web server directly to carry out various tasks. In most cases, you can usually download information from the web server to your computer through the FTP program you use. This can normally be done through anonymous usage of FTP. But, if you want to really use FTP to its fullest, you'll need to get a verified account so you an do more than just download files.

If you get a verified account, you can do such things as download files, edit them, then upload them again to the server. By doing this, you can change the content that is displayed on websites and alter information. You can also delete information from the server, move information from place to place, upload new information, and sometimes even change the type of permissions a particular file has (such as whether or not the file can be executed, or whether or not people can write new information to files or folders through their browsers). Though, it all depends on what type of permissions your verified account has, which determines what you can do.

In twilightus.net, primary forum administrators (the owner of the particular forum) can request to have access to their website's back-end information if needed. The permissions given to their verified account includes the ability to do everything their program can offer in most cases. With such access, primary administrators have the ability to upload new information to the server to be hosted on twilightus.net. Through this way, primary admins can actually create their own forum website if they really wanted to, just by uploading some files to their directory. For example, if they wanted, they could upload various HTML pages, PHP pages, images, CSS scripts, javascripts, and more to further enrich their forum and make their own special welcoming page. This gives a lot more flexibility into what can be shown on their websites. Now that you know what you can do with FTP, let's learn how to get an FTP program and get a verified account.

Please note: Only primary administrators (owners of RPGs) may actually use FTP with twilightus.net. If you would like to use FTP with twilightus.net, you'll have to contact the owner of the RPG you want to help out with and request for them to give you FTP access. If they don't already have an FTP account, they can request one from Twilightus Management.

Attaining a Verified Account

If you are the primary administrator of your forum, you can submit a request to get an FTP account to Twilightus Management.

To request an FTP account, simply contact Twilightus Management by and request that you be given access. You may only request this through and not the Contact Us page because this entails a function by which your email address will need to be checked and verified for authenticity.

When you submit your request, you will need to think of a Global Username and a Global Password to go along with it. This is simply the username and password that will be used for making your verified account. Global Usernames must consist of letters, numbers, and underscores only. Global Passwords must be 6-12 characters long. It is highly recommended that your Global Username and your Global Password not be the same as your forum Username or forum Password, just in case you ever decide to give access to anyone else or something happens to go wrong with FTP accounts. Just for security's sake, try to think of another combination to use.

Submit it and we'll get back to you as soon as possible with information about your new verified account! Now that you have a verified account, let's look at the program you'll use with it to access your directory.

Finding an FTP Program

The program you use with your verified account is the most important aspect of using FTP. You will need to find a program that you like and trust! In Twilightus, the most common program we use is a program called FTP Explorer. This is a very good program that we have used for over five years and love using. Unfortunately, the software developer has since taken the program off free development and payment must be issued to use the latest versions. But older versions can still be found. You can download an older version at http://www.twilightus.net/other/programs/ftpx.zip. Otherwise, you can surely use other free programs that you might find on freeware sites such as download.com or a1b2c3.com/free, or even use the standard programs you might have on your computer (Windows has one).

Using the Program

For this guide, we'll assume you use FTP Explorer. (Otherwise, it wouldn't be much more difficult to adapt the instructions here to your desired program.) Download the ZIP file and extract it. Install the program from there. You'll be asked to restart your computer, then asked if you want example profiles created. Follow the dialogues as you like. At the end, you'll come to a screen that looks similar to this one.

Once you get to a screen similar to this one, click on the Add button. You'll get a blank, standard template of a new profile that you can use to fill out the information to access your directory. Look at the image at http://www.twilightus.net/files/crpg/images/ftpdialogue.jpg and fill out the information exactly as shown.

• For Profile Name, you can put in the name of your RPG.
• For Host Address, put in twilightus.net
• For Port, just leave it as is (21).
• Leave the check boxes unmarked as shown in the picture.
• For Login, put in the username you were given by Twilightus Management. This username will consist of the username you chose with @twilightus.net attached to the end. Note that this is only used for FTP and is not a real email address, just the name you'll use to gain access.
• For Password, put in the password you gave to Twilightus Management for your Global Password.
• For Initial Path, you can leave it blank if you like. Or, you can put a slash like / which is the same thing. Otherwise, if you get the hang of using FTP, you can directly access folders in your directory by putting in the name of the folder you want to access like images or /images, whatever you prefer.
• All the rest of the information you can leave as is. It doesn't really matter.
• Click Save to save your new profile (although it'll automatically save when you go to the step below).

Click on the Connect button and your form will be processed by the server. Your username and password will be checked for authenticity. Once you are successfully connected, you will arrive at your forum website directory! This directory is located at www.twilightus.net/yourrpgurl. So all the files in the directory you see is all the files contained in the folder www.twilightus.net/yourrpgurl.

You'll notice that there are many folders and files already in there. That's because those folders and files are used for your forum's software. Don't tamper or touch these or you might risk losing the file and not being able to utilize a section of your forum! If you do happen to accidentally do something, contact Twilightus Management immediately!

Now that you are connected, you can do as you like really. To download files to your computer, the best way is to simply drag the file from the program menu to your computer. It's that simple! Just like dragging a file from one folder to the next in your computer, you can drag and drop it from the program to your computer, or from your computer to the program! The difference in this, though, is that you can't drag files or folders from a section in the program to another section in the program, such as trying to move a file from the main directory into the images folder. You'll have to manually download the file, double click on the images folder to open it, then reupload the file to the images folder, then delete it in the main directory.

Also as a note, images, programs, RTF, PPT, and compressed files should ALWAYS be uploaded through the B button at the top. If you look at the top navigation of the program, you'll notice a little A and a little B button. This stands for ASCII and Binary. The only thing you'll have to worry about is that for images, programs, RTF, PPT, and compressed files, you will need to click on the B button (Binary) to upload or download it. If a dialogue box pops up when trying to upload or download something saying it's recommended you do it through Binary and gives a Yes or No option, click the Yes button!

For everything else, use the A button (ASCII). This includes HTML files, XML files, PHP files, javascript files, CSS files, ASP files, etc etc. You can set these types of files to use ASCII through the options menu in the program.

When you upload a file to your directory, you can visit it through your browser program by simply visiting www.twilightus.net/yourrpgurl/yourfile. Remember to look at the extension of the file when you upload it too. For example, if we upload the image welcome.jpg to the /images folder, then we can visit it at www.twilightus.net/yourrpgurl/images/welcome.jpg and see how it looks! Or if we upload hello.html to the main directory, we can visit it by going to www.twilightus.net/yourrpgurl/hello.html to see if it was uploaded correctly. This makes making your website a breeze!

Well, that about covers it! Now you can be on your way to utilizing FTP in many, many fun and exciting ways!