Have you built a web site on PC or Mac and ready to upload website files to web server? Bluehost is a budget Apache+PHP hosting service provider who is famous for e-Commerce hosting for small business and cheap yet reliable email hosting for individuals and small business. In this article, we will use Bluehost web hosting to show you how to upload web pages and files from computer to Bluehost web server.
How to Upload Files to Bluehost Web Server with FTP?
A FTP client is the most popular tool for website files upload and download. Almost all web hosting services support FTP file transfer. Here are the steps for uploading files to web server with Bluehost using FTP client.
Step 1. Create FTP account
You have to set up an FTP account on web server at first. Log on your hosting control panel with Bluehost, go to Hosting >> cPanel >> File management >> FTP Manager, you can then set up new FTP account from there. You can also refer to this link for the detailed instructions to create FTP account in Bluehost cPanel. The procedure to add FTP account in cPanel is very similar among various cPanel hosting services, such as Bluehost, Arvixe, Inmotion, HostGator, etc. Do not miss out this page to find the best cPanel hosting services.
Step 2. Connect to web server with FTP client
Many FTP programs can be found and use to transfer data between computer and remote server, include CuteFTP, CoreFTP, FileZilla, etc. We recommend FileZilla which is free and open source, comes with various versions for Windows, Mac, Linux. You can get it from this link.
Run the FTP client for Windows or Mac on your computer, you will see its main interface like below.
Steps to connect to web server via FTP:
- Host: this is your domain name or server IP address;
- Username: FTP account username;
- Password: FTP account password;
- Port: the default FTP port is 21 for common FTP connections.
FTP connection troubleshooting:
If your domain is not pointed to the right web server, you will fail to connect to server using your domain name as Host. You can go to change your domain name servers or DNS A records to map the domain from registrar to your host. For example you can refer to this guide to change DNS A records of domain with GoDaddy. Alternatively you can also use your server IP address as the Host to connect to. You can refer to this page to find web server address in cPanel.
Step 3. Upload Files to Web Server with FileZilla FTP Client
Once you are connected to the FTP server via FileZilla, you will see two columns at the lower section of this FTP client: Local site and Remote site. There will be merely three steps you can copy files and documents from computer to remote web server.
- Open target folder on server: from the remote site section, browse to any directory on your web server which you like to upload files to. You can go to create a new folder to save the files.
- Select files on computer: from the local site section, browse to the web pages and files for your website, select any or all of them on your computer.
- Upload files from computer to server via FTP: right click on the selected files, files or folder, select ‘Upload’ item from the pop-up dialuge to upload selected files and folders from PC or Mac to web server online.
Upload Files to Bluehost Web Server throuhg File Manager
cPanel has the built-in File Manager which can also help you upload and download website files. Log on your hosting control panel with Bluehost, go to cPanel >> File Management >> File Manager.
You will open the online file manager like this.
Here you can also upload files from computer to cPanel hosting server or download files from web server to computer.
