Hey, I'm new to the whole FTP thing, and I have no clue what I'm doing. I tried just following the links given, and I've tried entering the username/password too. If anyone can PM me a walkthough or even post it for general comsumption, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Tony Z

First of all, if you're using thehundredthmeridian.com (or trying to) you'll need AceFTP. A lot of people, including me at one point, got SmartFTP first and it just doesn't work with THM. Then you just need to do the login info and put it in the appropriate fields (in the "connect" window) - be prepared for it to NOT work. Most of the time it won't work the first time. In the progress window, where it lists now connecting, connected, etc, when you get in it should give you a whole lot of green text and below, in the FTP window, there should be a list of folders you can access. If you see anything other than a whole lot of green text in the progress window, terminate the connection and try again. Sometimes it can take hours to get in, but believe me, it's worth it. And there are tons of different error messages, which come up in red text, but they all mean the same thing...try again.

I don't know much about computers so that's all I learned from having to start from scratch myself. Hopefully someone more technoliterate than me PM'd you

Hey all

Just to let everyone know. I was running SmartFTP before and I actually got it working with THM. So it does work, you just need to sit and tweak the settings here and there. But you could just skip it and use ACEftp and be done with it.

PS. Server is back up...my computer Hiccuped so i had to reformat.

Later!!

why would you need ACEftp ? how is that different than any other FTP client?

FTP uses 2 TCP connections (or channels), 1 for control and one for data.
The standard control connection is TCP port 21.
The default data connection (and extremely rare to see - you can almost forget it exists) is port 20.

When an FTP connection is made but listing a directory or sending data fails it is almost ALWAYS the data connection at fault! This is by far the most common problem encountered in FTP connections.

FTP has 2 modes, PORT (also called "regular" or "normal" mode) and PASV ("passive" mode for clients behind firewalls).

The client determines the mode that will be used (or attempted as the case may be)...
If the client issues a PORT command, it is attempting "PORT" mode.
If the client issues a PASV command, it is attempting "PASV" mode.
If the client does not issue either command, PORT mode is assumed using port 20 for data (again, very rare these days).

In PORT mode, the client (yes to CLIENT!) is the server end of the data channel.
In PASV mode, the server is the server end of the data channel.

The difference between PORT and PASV modes is which end plays "server" for the data channel!

If you are going to use FTP regularly, get to know how to read logs and what the PORT and PASV commands do!

Depending on which software you use these settings could be different and may have to changed depending on the Server you are trying to connect to.

so what settings should we use? do you want PORT mode and port 20?

you still didn't answer my question tho. how does aceFTP differ from other clients?

How does ACEftp differ? That's a good question. You'd have to ask the programmer, cause I've never used it. Perhaps ACEftp autodetects the settings on the server side and switches to the proper transfer mode (PASV or PORT) automatically. Where in with SmartFTP you have to change it manually. That's just a guess and a far-fetched one at that.

There could be many differences within the software which allows it to work better, very hard to say.

so what settings should we use for this ftp? i am sure that i can configure flasFXP properly. i don't really want to have download and install another client.

Well the settings on the client side generally depend on the settings on the Server side. Best way to know is to ask the person who is running the server whether to use PORT or PASV or if any other settings may need to be changed.

oh, i'm sorry dude. i thought you were running the server.

my bad.

Very informative information to a novice like me. Even though the question is not completely answered, it gives me some ideas as to how connect to the popular Hip FTPs. All attempts to this point have been unsuccessful.

i broke down and installed ACEftp and it won't connect.

i got further with smartFTP thatn with aceFTP

It might take a while...I would be shocked if you can connect and download from THM with Smart FTP. I used to swear by it until I came to THM, then I needed AceFTP.

I posted about SmartFTP a whole ago. It does work. Here is what I told Rg:

"Rg,

I too had the same issue with SmartFTP. All you need to do is go into TOOLS-->
SETTINGS
In the left pane select TRANSFER

In the top section of the right pane where it says "Directory Listing Options", make sure only "Show all files (-a)" and "Recursive (-R)" are checked. All others should be unchecked. I hope this helps. It took me a long time to figure out what was going on!

Cheers!

Chad"

This should do it. One of the biggest reasons you can not connect at all is because the slots are almost always full. This is one of the few (if not THE only) Hip FTP server out there right now and with only 10 available slots, they fill up quick. The server will not tell you that they are full though. If you use SmartFTP with the default settings and you ARE able to connect, the directory will not list. This is why you need to follow the settings I outlined above. I have had no problems at all, but it sometimes takes a few days to connect. I have it set to retry every 180 sec with unlimited tries. I like to connect to the server and set up a bunch of shows in my global queue, then log off and hit start (the little play button in the global queue). You must remember to log off, because you can not have 2 concurrent connnections (you'd be taking up 2 slots bud!). Good luck!

Cheers!

Chad

just so everyone knows, i am downloading from thehundredthmeridian.com using flashFXP