Example:http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com:80/index.html
Both of the above will yield the same result. The default port for http is port 80, so it doesn't need to be included. "index.html" is one of the default files that a browser will look for.
Notice there is no user/pass. This is because the site allows for anonymous access.
Now on to FTP. If you are going to use a browser (internet explorer always works for me) for FTP, its just like http
Example:
ftp://loveline:ace@njctech.com/loveline/shows/
The protocol is ftp. The username is "loveline". Password is "ace". Host is "njctech.com". The default FTP port is 21 (so it can be omitted). "/loveline/shows/" are subdirectories and I didnt include a file so the above would give you a file listing. If you wanted to access a particular file, you would append it to the end of what you see above.
Some sites are on non-standard ports.
Kev's for example:
ftp://broadband@12.252.12.152:9500/
Here the port is 9500. Also notice that there is no password, just a username ("broadband"). The password is blank, so it doesn't need to be there. The address can be numbers like this, or a name like "njctech.com".
ftp://loveline@triggersite.com
Again, no password, and standard port.
Now, if you plan on doing a lot of FTP'ing, I would suggest getting a client program, such as "WS_FTP" or "CuteFTP" or whatever.
You can also ftp from a command prompt, but that is not really for newbies. It isn't that hard, you should just get familiar with the browser and client methods first.
Hopefully this helps familiarize people with FTP. Please note, this was not meant to be an exhaustive tutorial of how everything works. There is a lot more that could be said, but my intent was just to help some of the people who are having difficulties. Please search google if you want more info.
NJC
—