I'm an idiot about uploading stuff to the web

March 15, 2008 6:59 AM

Why do I suck so bad at uploading stuff to hosting sites?

I'll say that I'm pretty good at the ol' computer thing. People ask me how to do stuff. I have a magic touch with applications. But I suck at this web stuff. I know little bits of HTML and all. But uploading stuff to web hosting accounts seems insanely complicated to me. I have been trying to get a handle on this for years, but never get very far.

Right now I'm trying to upload a slideshow I did in a program called Soundslides to a webhosting account I have with Godaddy.com. It's a folder with a bunch of files in it. Should I zip it and then upload it and then can I unzip it afterwards? I just tried that and the site did its uploading thing, and then...poof. No file in the file manager.

Is there a tutorial somewhere that is very basic and could explain to me how to deal with uploading to a server? I've never been better than mediocre at this. I have tons of cool ideas for slideshows (I'm a photographer and also do audio recording) but I'm stymied by this seemingly simple problem).

AND is there a web hosting service that is good for people who for whatever reason can't figure this stuff out? Something that makes things totally obvious?

posted by sully75 to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Do you have a PC or a Macintosh? What OS are you running?
posted by Mwongozi at 7:12 AM on March 15, 2008

Windows XP.
posted by sully75 at 7:16 AM on March 15, 2008

Are you using a FTP program or some web-based upload system provided by GoDaddy? Why are you trying to zip the file? (In my 9+ years of web design, I've never zipped a file in order to upload it.)

FTP is very easy to use. Download something like Filezilla. Type in your server info, username & password. Then you just select the folder you want the files to go into, select the files, and drag them over.

Uploading Files to Your (GoDaddy) Web Site

Using FileZilla to Upload Your Site
posted by belladonna at 7:32 AM on March 15, 2008

Ok I just got my slideshow up via filezilla...thanks for that.

One question, this one always gets me. If I'm in Filezilla or on the godaddy.com file manager, is there a place I can see all my files and then click on one to see how it's working live on the site? I had to type in my address and then the extension and I just want to be able to see what the link is going to look like on the actual site. It seems like it should be easy but I can't figure it out.
posted by sully75 at 9:51 AM on March 15, 2008

If I'm in Filezilla or on the godaddy.com file manager, is there a place I can see all my files and then click on one to see how it's working live on the site?

No, I don't think so.

Maybe I'm not understanding, but you can bookmark your main site & then type in the folder name at the end of it when you want to see the stuff you just uploaded.
posted by belladonna at 10:53 AM on March 15, 2008

Belladonna...thanks. It seemed like this would be a totally normal thing to be able to do. So I was always searching for it. A host I had a while ago had a hamish version of this, I never could figure out why I couldn't do it on other servers.

Thanks for your help. I'm somewhat up and running now!
posted by sully75 at 12:30 PM on March 15, 2008

Good luck!
posted by belladonna at 1:10 PM on March 15, 2008

is there a place I can see all my files and then click on one to see how it's working live on the site?


this is a feature you ae unlikely to find in most ftp clients. i say this for the following reasons. your ftp server does not need to be a web server; for the first 12 or so years of the ftp protocols life http did not even exist. urls do not have to reflect file paths and as a result your ftp client would need to be aware of how your web servers configuration. your previous host was able to offer this feature because they knew this information.
posted by phil at 4:29 PM on March 15, 2008