Since the administrative username and password give one the ability to change or remove all files on your EarthLink Server, you should give this information to as few people as possible. Aside from administrative access, outside users may access your FTP site using either the public anonymous account or a Dropbox account you have created.

As the administrator of your account, you have the ability to navigate through all the directories in your Web Hosting site server space: including the directories where you Web files are stored, as well as your /pub directory, where your public FTP files are stored. To connect to your site via FTP as the administrator of your account, use the account Web Hosting User ID and password included on your Welcome Letter. The username will be in the form www<xxxxx>%<domain>.com or wfp<xxxxx>%<domain>.com (where <xxxxx> is your unique five-digit customer ID).

Generally, when a user connects to your FTP area, he or she will do so anonymously. That is, visitors will use the word "anonymous" as the username, and will send their email address as the password. If you wish to provide anonymous access to your FTP site, you will need to contact EarthLink Web Hosting Support at 1-888-932-1997.

When visitors are logged in anonymously, they are restricted to the /pub directory. /pub stands for public. This is where you place files that you want anyone to be able to access. Anonymous users can't erase anything, create or delete directories, or upload files.

There is one directory within the /pub directory that is for visitors to upload files. This is the /pub/incoming directory.

One feature of this directory is that even though anonymous users can upload files to it, they can't see any files in this directory. This is to prevent visitors from using your FTP area as their own private server. Only you, as the administrator, can see the files that visitors upload.

You can place files on your FTP site using a standard FTP client such as WS_FTP or Fetch.

1. FTP to ftp.yourcompany.com using your Web Hosting User ID and password.

2. Change the directory to /pub .

3. Upload your files to that directory.

For specific information on using your FTP client, consult the documentation that came with it or search for information at EarthLink's Help Desk:

http://webhelp.mindspring.com

You can also place files on your FTP site using EarthLink's File Manager. To place files on your site, take the following steps:

1. Access the EarthLink File Manager using the Hosting Control Panel.

2. Click on the /pub directory.

3. In the File Uploading section, click on Browse .

4. Using the open file dialog, locate the file on your drive that you wish to upload, and click on Open .

5. Click on the Upload button.

If you want to tell someone how to reach your FTP site, you can give the address (URL):

ftp://ftp.yourcompany.com/

Previous, Using Your FTP Site

Next, Setting up Your Incoming FTP Area