“It’s never a bad idea to have too many tutorials” is the thought with which I started my day today. And the result is the following guide into FTP with the cPanel Control Panel. This guide will join the rest of our reseller tutorials under the cPanel reseller program.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is used for the transfer of files from a computer to a web server, or the other way around. It’s one of the most important services a web hosting company offers, since it provides a very, very easy way to transfer a big group of files from your home computer to your web hosting account, by using simple and intuitive programs, which will do all the work for you.

Additionally, you can connect to an FTP enabled server by using your web browser (Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc)

Creating FTP accounts

You can create FTP accounts in the cPanel Control Panel from the Files menu section via the FTP accounts section. All you have to do is fill in the Login and Password fields and save the changes.

Login details

With the cPanel Control Panel, you can use FTP file transfers right off the bat, using temporary login details. These details will vary from account to account, but in general they are:

• Temporary FTP Hostname: the dedicated IP address that the system assigned to your account (it looks like 209.25.133.51 for instance)
• Username: the default username of your account
• Password: the corresponding password for the account
• Port: 21

Once your domain name is fully functional in your web hosting account with us, you can stop using the temporary details and start using your FTP login details, which feature your domain name instead of your IP address, and which are much easier to remember:

• FTP Hostname: domain.com
• Username: the default username of your account
• Password: the corresponding password for the account
• Port: 21

Limited FTP Access

You can create FTP accounts with limited access meaning that you can give access to a user’s specific directory and all sub directories within that directory. In order to do that fill the Directory tab when you are creating the FTP account using the exact path to the user‘s directory (like /home/username/folder).