lost/help

[wino369]

i am trying to download my website to my hard drive, one of those reformat and forgot to save

i have tried unlimited ftp thru my server control panel and i have tried filezilla
the problem is i dont know how to use them and cant figure it out.

I can connect to my website, but i cant get the site back on my hard drive to edit.. any help? i used front page to create the site david

[mistywindow]

Can you elaborate a little?

I don't understand why you're in trouble here. You've mastered the hardest part if Filezilla is connecting to your host. All you need to do now is drag and drop your remote files into a local location just as you would with files in Windows Explorer.

i.e. Drag from the right-hand pane into the left pane. Your site's files as you're probably aware, wil be in the public_html directory or a sub-directory of public_html.

In the screenshot below I've just dragged index.php from my site's root onto my local Desktop:



Filezilla will drop the connection after a short time if there's no activity. In that case just click the Reconnect button. I find often that it's necessary to restart Filezilla to do this successfully.

Hope this helps.

[mistywindow]

If you haven't managed to connect FileZilla to your site, here's how:

1. In the Host box enter:
   ftp.yoursitename.com
   (or .net.uk or whatever)
2. In the Username box enter the Username given to you by your hosting folk.
3. And, obviously, the password in the last box.
4. Click the quickconnect button.

[Anupam]

Another way to download a website on your hard disk is to use a website ripper like HTTrack.

[mistywindow]

Are you getting anywhere wino369? Do you need more information?

[chris.p]

A simple way would be:

1. Download the site using Getleft. Then you have a saved copy of the actual pages diplayed, which anyway you need even if you have the master files in some form (eg the Fontpage version or whatever).

2. Then, work out how to use FTP and practice with it.

3. Personally I'd then go to the next stage, which is to find some alternative to MS Frontpage, which was obsolete by 2002 never mind now in 2010. It's RIP so as soon as you understand all the issues better, ditch it and find something better.

The easiest way to build a site now is in a micro-CMS like Wordpress, or a small-scale CMS like CMS Made Simple, RedaxScript or SkyBlue Canvas, or even by using a full-feature CMS like Joomla but just using it in basic form.

IMO these are all easier than using even a visual HTML editor but to be honest, opinion is split 50-50 on this, it's a matter of personal preference.

Either way you should dump Frontpage as soon as is reasonably possible, it's hard to use, does not produce great sites, and is very bad for the web as it totally ignores any/all web standards. Even MS dropped it which shows how bad it must be, and even the most dedicated MS fanboy would have to admit that the internet is not MS' home turf. PCs: yes, web: no. They have products there because they have to but just about everyone and his dog does it better.

MS does produce some webapps that are well-received (such as Windows Server and Sharepoint) but most people would probably be better off using open-source or specialist suppliers. MS webapps are best used by large-scale operations.