FireFTP

When you use the Mozilla Composer program to publish webpages and images to your OU webspace, you are "uploading" files to that webspace. Yet you might also find yourself in a situation where you want to "download" all your files, making a copy of what you have published on your local hard drive (this is useful, for example, if you have had trouble with your computer and had to replace the hard drive). You might also want to manage your OU webspace, deleting old files that you don't need anymore. In order to download or delete files, you cannot use Mozilla Composer; instead, you need to use an FTP program.

For the purposes of this tip, it does not matter what FTP program you are using, so if you already have an FTP program on your computer that you like, just create an account to log on to your OU webspace and skip to Step Seven, sending me a screenshot.

If you do not already have an FTP program that you know how to use, please follow the instructions below for using the FireFTP plug-in for the Firefox browser. You need to have the Firefox web browser already installed on your computer.

STEP ONE: Download and install the FireFTP plug-in by going to the FireFTP webpage and following the instructions there. (For this to work, you must already have installed the Firefox browser on your computer.)

STEP TWO: After you have installed FireFTP and restarted your browser, FireFTP will show up under the Tools Menu in your Firefox browser:

STEP THREE: After you click the FireFTP option in tool menu, a screen will pop up showing two panels - one panel contains all the files on your local computer, and the other panel will contain the files on the remote location. The first time you connect to the OU webspace as your remote location, you need to click on Manage Accounts, and then select New. You only need to do this once; after you create this New account, you will be able to use it whenever you want to access your OU webspace.

STEP FOUR: When you select New from the Manage Accounts menu, a dialog box will pop up. You need to enter the name of this account ("OU webspace" or something like that), and you need to enter the name of the remote server, which is simply students.ou.edu (or faculty-staff.ou.edu, if your OU webspace is on the server for faculty and staff). For the login, enter your OUNet ID (4x4), and for the password, enter your regular OU password for the password to the account.

STEP FIVE: Now you should see the new account show up in the Accounts box, and you can click on Connect to connect to your account.

STEP SIX: When you connect successfully, you should see all your webpage and image files in the remote location panel. When you are done, make sure you close the FireFTP tab in your browser.

• To navigate from folder to folder, just click on the folder you want to open, and you will see the files and subfolders displayed.
• You can use the arrows pointing between the two panels to move files between your local computer and the remote location.
• To delete a file, just right-mouse click and choose the DELETE option (be careful: files deleted in this way do not go into the "trash" and this action cannot be undone - so delete with caution!)
• For additional features and functions, click on the Help link in the upper-right-hand corner of the FireFTP window.

For example, here is what FireFTP looks like when I am connected to my OU webspace:

STEP SEVEN: Send screenshot. You need to take a screenshot of your FireFTP screen, showing your connection to your OU webspace, and send that to me via email. Here are the instructions for taking a screenshot. It should look something like the screenshot image shown above. Make sure you use this subject line: TechTip FireFTP.

When you have sent in the email, you can do the Gradebook Declaration for Extra Credit. Here is the text of the Gradebook Declaration you will complete: