Uploading & Downloading Files

This information only pertains to Hurricane Electric's Shared Web Hosting package. There may be different information in our other categories.

How do I get my web pages to the server?

To get your web pages to the server you will need to use SFTP.

Do I need to know SFTP?

If you want to sign up for a Hurricane Electric web hosting account you will need to use SFTP. It's a fairly simple process, and our tutorials as well as many places on the internet have simple instructions on its use.

What SFTP client should I use?

Our Internet Software page lists a few SFTP programs that work well with our systems, though there are commercial packages that work as well. You only need to make sure it has the SFTP(SCP) protocol included. Most older programs do not.

You can find a basic tutorial on the use of WinSCP here.

Does your site support multiple www pages on the same directory?

Yes.

How often can I upload my revised HTML pages and what is the cost of each upload?

As often as you like, when you like. Each upload generates traffic equivalent to one hit on the document involved.

How many people would have access to upload and/or edit html files per account?

As many people as have the account name and password and know how to use SFTP or SSH.

Can I break my pages down into sub directories?

Yes.

Are SFTP uploads the only way to get a file there?

It's the primary way, but there are work-arounds.

Can I create my own disk-library structure?

You can create any structure of directories you want.

Am I 'limited' on changing files, etc.?

No. You can change files as often and as many times as you like.

I would like information on how I will set up my Web http pages, and any other requirements as well.

When you sign up for an account you receive basic instructions.

How do I upload my "index.html" with the four letter extension when my PC will only allow me to add a three letter extension.

You have two solutions at your disposal to resolve this:

1. Get a fully functional SFTP client which allows you to set the destination file name. There are several free FTP clients that support this.

2. SSH to the server you are on, for example, thor.he.net. Log in using your account name and password and type:

     cd public_html

     mv index.htm index.html

If a user accesses a large 200k gif and then cancels it after 5 k are received will it show up in the logs and then the stats as a 200k transfer?

Only the actual data transferred, in this case 5k.

I uploaded a known good html file. I logged onto to my WWW page and downloaded it to verify that it worked. The file now has errors. Why did a good upload resulted in a bad download?

The file was probably uploaded with your SFTP client in binary mode. This does CR-LF to LF translation. (DOS to Unix text translation.) Don't do this. If you use a command line SFTP client, be sure to type "ascii" before sending up files for download. If you are using a client like WinSCP, be sure you select the ascii transfer option.

What, if any, files do you want to start or will you put a dummy in the directory for me to overwrite?

We prefer you install your pages as soon as possible. All new accounts are created with a temporary home page.

I made some directories by accident. Why won't the server allow me to delete them?

You may be having trouble because if you using SSH or a text based SFTP client you have to put quotes around the filename.

Also, you may be having trouble because you need to delete the files inside the directory first or you might be having trouble because you typed the name wrong. Files and directories are case-sensitive.

Is there a way for anonymous users to upload files?

We don't support incoming directories due to the legal and security risks.

Can I use to SSH to edit my web pages?

Yes. As for working on your web pages on the server. Our Version 1 and Version 2 servers have pico and vi installed to allow for SSH editing of text files. Our Version 3 servers have nano and vim.

Do your web sites support the anonymous FTP function?

No.

Is there a way to download files without anonymous FTP?

You can use file transfer over HTTP. Basically, you put the file in a directory under your public_html directory and link directly to it for downloading. If it's a document file that might display instead of download (depending on the browser used) you can use any compression utility to store the file in an archive for transferring.

Additionally, there are download scripts available that can be installed on your account to allow you to set up "download directories" over HTTP.

I lost/deleted a file on my site by mistake. Do you keep backups?

We do back up data on our servers nightly, but these backups are run and kept for administrative purposes. We recommend that you keep backup copies of your site on your local computer, as the servers back up their data nightly, overwriting the previous backup.

Please refer to our Terms of Service, item 9, "Use of Hurricane Electric services, including the storage of information, is at the account holder's sole risk."