1. cPanel File Manager (recommended for a small number of files)
- Go to cPanel - Files section - File Manager
- Choose Document root and a site you need to upload files for from the drop-down list and hit Go. If you want to go straight to to public_html, check Web root
If you want to view hidden system files such as .htaccess ones or others, leave the boxShow Hidden Files checked.
- Click the Upload button
You can also extract or compress archives which is very helpful and fast especially when uploading/downloading multiple files.
While File Manager is instantly accessible via cPanel and does not need to be installed additionally, it is considered to be less convenient than an FTP client.
2. FTP clients (recommended for a large number of files / if the website files are frequently updated)
An FTP client lets you quickly handle files and get instant access to your web space. The only downside is that you will still need to use cPanel in case you want to extract files because FTP clients do not support this feature.
There are plenty of FTP clients, and you can choose one that’s up to you. If you ask us, we suggest that you use Filezilla - this is a popular FTP client with a friendly interface, easy to use and simple to configure.
Step 1:
Download Filezilla Client from the official site at https://filezilla-project.org/
Step 2:
Once you’ve installed it and see Filezilla icon on your desktop, please launch the program.
Step 3:
It is possible to connect through different protocols:
FTP (not recommended, because channels through which data flows are not encrypted which means any information transmitted can be intercepted):
Host: your server hostname or IP address
Username: your cpanel username or cpanel_usernam@domain_name (for custom FTP account created in cPanel >> FTP accounts)
Password: your cpanel password or password for your custom FTP account
Port: 21
FTPes (explicit SSL mode, encrypted):
Host: ftpes://your server hostname or IP address
Username: your cPanel username
Password: your cPanel password
Port: 21
SFTP (SSH-based secure FTP, encrypted):
Host: sftp://your server hostname or IP address
Username: your cPanel username
Password: your cPanel password
Port: 21098
Once all the settings are filled out, click on Quickconnect.
You are ready now to work on your website!
Illustrated guide covering FileZilla setup can be found here.
3. Web-based FTP clients
Besides using a standard FTP client, you may also use a web-based FTP client, for example,http://www.net2ftp.com
The settings you will need to fill in are just the same as we pointed out in the previous paragraph.
NOTE: files which are too big can't be downloaded, uploaded, copied, moved, searched, zipped, unzipped, viewed or edited; they can only be renamed, chmodded or deleted.
We won’t bore you more, so we stop right here. Hopefully, after having read this article you will happily upload your cool files and will be ready to absorb next techie bunch of wisdom!
