FTP Host

What is the FTP Host?

Uploading and downloading files on the Internet has been made truly easy with the introduction of special software programs, called FTP clients, allowing users to easily perform data exchange actions between their computers and given hosting servers over one of the fundamental network protocols on the web - the File Transfer Protocol. This is done by opening secure FTP connections between the users' computers and the servers where the uploaded files are to be stored or downloaded from.

In order for an FTP connection to be made users need to present some important details that indicate they have been authorized to access that particular FTP server. The details include the name of the host server (FTP host) that the users want to connect to and the personal server login credentials (if the login is not anonymous).

How to set an FTP Client to connect to an FTP host

In order to establish an FTP connection to a server the client needs to set its FTP connection settings. The FTP connection setup includes providing FTP Account details for the host. Those details are assigned to each user upon signing up for a hosting service and must be introduced in the corresponding fields within the FTP client software that are usually located at the top of the client's screen.

While the login detail fields are designated with 'username' and 'password' on the majority of the clients, the FTP host field is referred to in different ways, including 'hostname', 'host address', 'server', 'FTP host address', etc., depending on the program used. Also, the FTP host address field can be filled with the server's IP or with a specific host (e.g. ftp://ftp.my-best-domain.com or ftp://68.128.255.1 ).

Another setting that must be set in the FTP client software is the FTP host port. By default, the port is set to 21, but if the FTP server uses different port, you need to specify it in the port field. If the FTP client software doesn't have an FTP port field, you can specify the port in the hostname field just after the host address. The settings must be separated by ':' (e.g. ftp://my-best-domain.net:2121).

With all these settings set in the FTP client you are ready to establish a connection to the FTP host. If, for some reason, the server doesn't allow you to connect, you need to check the FTP account details again. If all account details are correct, there are several other tweaks that you may have to set before you can establish an FTP connection successfully.

First off, check the number of the simultaneous connections allowed by the server. Some FTP hosts are set to allow only a single connection per client, meaning that you can transfer each file one by one.

Also, some FTP servers are set to allow connections only in Passive mode. Check your FTP client and set it to use a passive mode connection (more details about the active and the passive mode connections you can read in the FTP article)

FTP Host settings in a web hosting account

NTC Hosting provides its clients with a premium FTP hosting service. With all our web hosting accounts we provide FTP access. Also, your primary FTP account is automatically created during the web hosting account setup (all FTP details are sent to you by e-mail). Actually, providing clients with FTP access is very common with all web hosting providers. What makes our service premium is our FTP manager. By using the FTP manager section of the web hosting Control Panel, our clients can easily create and delete an FTP account, or manage existing FTP accounts by editing their passwords and pointing every account to a different folder path.

If you are not sure what your FTP host is, you can always check in the FTP manager section, below the list of the created accounts.