Support - FTP

  1. General Info
  2. Info about your MonkeyBrains account
  3. Step by Step Client Configuration
  4. Frequently Asked FTP questions
General FTP Information
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. You need to FTP your files to Monkeybrains if you want a personal website. MonkeyBrains recommends using the FireFox web browser with the FireFTP Add-On. There are many other programs that can FTP including DreamWeaver. All Computers come with a text-based ftp program that you can run from a Terminal window (try it!). So, to FTP, you need to use an FTP client to copy your website to the server from your computer. "client" refers to a program which would run on your computer... MonkeyBrains has an FTP "server" running which can talk to FTP "clients". Computer people say things like "I ftp'd some files to your server, did you get them?".

Once you have an FTP program, or "client", you will need to set some parameters within that program. Set the FTP site or host to: ftp.monkeybrains.net, and login with your username and password. Set the mode to PASV or passive if you plan to FTP to servers other than Monkey Brains.

To have files show up on your website, you will need to put them in a directory titled "public_html". When you login with your FTP client, you will start in your home directory, use the public_html directory should be below that. That is the place to put files you wish everyone to be able to read. For example,
A file ftp'd to /public_html/index.html on the server while logged in as 'rudy' can be reached at the following URL:
  http://www.monkeybrains.net/~rudy/index.html.

Some FTP programs require you to transfer files as either BINARY or ASCII.

  • images, directory movies, etc are BINARY
  • text, html, and perl are ASCII files What does all this mean? Basically, ASCII means your file is text and BINARY means your file is not text. To tell if a file is BINARY, try opening it in NOTEPAD (windows users), SimpleText (mac users), or vi (UNiX users). If it looks like text, it is; if it looks like garbage @^H@&&^!){0010101$^1201010 then it is binary.

    For further reading, consult Stepahanie Lai's technical document on FTPing.

    MonkeyBrains FTP info

    Where to FTP files for your Website
    Remote Hostftp.monkeybrains.net
    Loginyour username & password
    FTP path for domain name owners/www.EXAMPLE.com/docs/
    Domain name owner URLhttp://www.EXAMPLE.com/
    FTP path for your website/public_html/
    Personal website URLhttp://www.monkeybrains.net/~username/

    Step by Step example

    There are many programs for FTP'ing files. They all work more or less the same. If you can follow the logic of this example, you ought to be able to set up any other program. Here is an example that works in the year 2007 -- FireFTP may not be around in 10 years, but the logic will be similar.

    FireFox specific Example

  • Download FireFTP while using your FireFox browser.
  • Launch FireFTP ... It is a NEW option in your TOOLS menu:
  • Once clicked, a couple of 'tabs' will open in your browser. If this is the FIRST time you are using FireFTP, a 'please donate to FireFTP window' will open. Click on the other tab that says FireFTP.
  • Now, Click "Manage Accounts", and then 'New...':
  • Fill it out with info similar to in the image below. Account Name is for you and you can call it anything you want. Host is important -- it can be ftp.monkeybrains.net or www.example.com [substitute your domain name for example.com]. If you have a brand new domain, and DNS isn't working for your domain, you can use 'ftp.monkeybrains.net'. Login is usually your email account. The password is the same one as your email account password:
  • You may want to set the initial directories for when you connect... click on the Connection tab:
    • FTP FAQ

    What is my username?
    Probably your full email address: snoopy@example.com. If you signed up before 2002 it may just be snoopy.
    I can connect to the MonkeyBrains server, but I can't transfer files!
    You may need to set or unset PASSIVE mode in you ftp client.
    I can transfer files, but I can't see them on my Website!
    Did you put them in the correct directory (see table above)? Are the files readable by the world?
    I see a firewall setting in my FTP program, what show I set it to?
    Disable it! Ordinarily, you do not need any firewall support in your FTP program.
    I don't understand why I can't FTP, but I got a message to email support+monkeybrains my IP number 123.123.123.123.
    Simply, you can't connect for TWO reasons. You are using an Internet connection other than monkeybrains, and the IP you are at does not have reverse DNS. Email you IP to MonkeyBrains' support, or bug the support at the place you are connected to the Internet. There is NO reason you should not have reverse DNS.

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