Deamweaver "Site Definition" question

February 9, 2007 2:25 PM

Help, Help !! If anyone has experience with Dreamweaver and setting up the “Site Definition” settings; either basic or advanced mode for “Remote Info” I desperately need your advice and it would be very much appreciated. Runbox is my web host and I use “cPannel” to manage my web files. I can’t figure out what settings to use for “FTP access”. What would my “FTP host” be and what should I put in there this field? To be honest, I’m not quite sure what a FTP is although to use Dreamweaver’s functions, I need to set this up and have not been successful. Next question; Am I correct in saying the “Host Directory” would be in the “public_html” folder in cPannel that all my web page files are located? Any advice would be appreciated. I’ve tried multiple times and days to set this up, but I must be doing something wrong. Thank you in advance for your cooperation…Orlin
posted by orlin to computers & internet (7 comments total)

FTP (file transfer protocol)is one option dreamweaver can use to transfer files between your local machine and a remote machine (your web site)

Your ftp host is generally your site name:

whatever.com

or sometimes the host sets it up as ftp.whatever.com

Your username and pw are most likely the same that you use to log into cPanel

and I'd say your thoughts about host directory are probably sound.

If it doesn't work at first, try checking the box in the dreamweaver site settings that says something about using passive ftp and see if that works for you.
posted by zackola at 2:31 PM on February 9, 2007

The host directory, yes - is most likely the public_html folder.

The FTP host is the place on the Internet that's hosting your files. Your provider should have given you a name, password, and an address (might be a URL like www.domain.com that you own/use, or might be an IP address like 72.22.22.22)
posted by jare2003 at 2:32 PM on February 9, 2007

On second thought, after checking out Runbox's site, you may be out of luck.

http://runbox.com/twiki/bin/view/RunboxInfo/GettingStartedWithWebHosting

It would seem from this info, that they do not provide ftp access. That would be fairly ridiculous for them to not provide ftp or sftp or scp, but, I guess it's a possibility.
posted by zackola at 2:34 PM on February 9, 2007

If you search runbox for "ftp" you find the following:

FTP client
Because Runbox Files utilizes FTP (File Transfer Protocol) you can use a dedicated FTP client of your choice to connect to the service, for instance WS_FTP. Set up a new connection using the following information:

* Server name: ftp.runbox.com
* Port number: 21 (default)
* Your Runbox username and password

Try using ftp.runbox.com as your server name, and hope that entering your username and password will dump the files in the correct directory...

good luck...
posted by HuronBob at 2:43 PM on February 9, 2007

I use ftp via dreamweaver to update the school website...wish I had read this before I got home to be more accurate on what exactly are in my dialogue boxes.

We connect to the server ftp.domainname.com with a username/password as provided by the host company. However, unlike jare, our host directory is www. You can use a ftp program such as ws_ftp to log on to the home directory and see if there's a public_html or whatever folder waiting for you to use index.html
posted by jmd82 at 3:00 PM on February 9, 2007

FYI: Dreamweaver's FTP is a bit klunky and may time-out on you after using it a few times.

Shut down Dreamweaver completely and restart and it should start working again.
posted by Mick at 3:19 PM on February 9, 2007

Thanks everyone -- I appreciate your help and prompt attention. Regard to all... :-D
posted by orlin at 4:27 PM on February 10, 2007