FTP Upload and Transfer to public_html folder

[phrankoweb57]

Greetings and Hope All Here Are Safe and Well .....

I am new to both cPanel and to this forum. I have virtually no experience with cPanel, and now I am about to come to a decision on a new web host. Should the new host I go with have cpanel, there's one critical issue I need resolved.

It is my understanding (still limited at this point) that for security reasons FTP uploads to a Cpanel-powered site do not go to the folder (public_html) from which the actual web-site operates. Instead the uploads go to a custom folder that is created when one establishes an FTP account. After uploading, then the site operator uses the cPanel file manager to move the uploaded material into the public_html folder.

This transfer procedure to public_html is the main thing which I have no knowledge of. All I need, in the simplest language, are the steps of the transfer process as it is used at cpanel hosting sites. You may use some of the best known such hosts as examples.

BTW -- I use both CORE and Filezilla for FTP uploads. My previous site hosters were not cPanel powered, and the uploads -- requiring only an ftp URL, username and password -- went straight to the root folder. I have come to understand that uploading to a cPanel-powered site also works with an FTP URL, username and password. I also understand that basic FTP uploads are not necessarily secure, and that FTP apps like CORE and Filezilla can be configured for secure uploads, although I lack knowledge of the basic steps.

Although not a requirement for a response, If any one can create screenshots of CORE and/or Filezilla, marking the fields to fill out and/or place a check on, that would at least put me on the right track.

And I should also mention that my new site will be a general personal info site -- the content consisting mainly of HTML, JS (Javascript), CSS, JPEG and GIF images, PDF files, and perhaps an occasional MP3 audio or MP4 video file. Total content would be at least 500 MB, and the max between one and two GB.

Thank you most kindly -- Stay Safe and Well.

 

[SamuelM]

Hello @phrankoweb57

Thank you for contacting cPanel!

On cPanel servers, users can use an FTP client such as Core FTP to connect via the SFTP protocol (SSH FTP) or the standard FTP protocol. SFTP access is managed by the SSH service, and therefore after the user logs in with their cPanel account credentials, they can navigate to any directory their account is authorized to access. FTP access is managed by an FTP daemon (PureFTPd or ProFTPd), and the cPanel account owner can create FTP accounts with custom user names and restrict access to a specific directory per-user. You can read more about creating FTP accounts in cPanel here:

https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/files/ftp-accounts/

It is indeed possible for users to access the public_html directory when logging in via SFTP. The same is true for FTP as long as public_html exists within FTP account's home directory. There are not any inherent restrictions to uploading files to public_html on cPanel servers.

If for some reason a user must login using an FTP account that does not have access to the public_html directory, and the files they upload need to be moved to public_html, that can be done by the cPanel account owner via the File Manager in cPanel, or by logging in via SFTP themselves. The files could also be moved by the cPanel account owner via SSH.

Security can be improved when connecting to your server via your FTP client by using SFTP or enabling encryption with regular FTP. Enabling encryption may vary depending on the client used, but it is usually an option that can be toggled when first connecting to the FTP account.

Unfortunately I do not use the CORE or Filezilla clients, so I cannot easily provide you screenshots. However, we do provide general guidelines for configuring FTP clients in our documentation:

https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/files/ftp-accounts/82/#configure-ftp-client

I hope you find this helpful. Let us know if you have any follow-up questions.

Best regards,

 

[phrankoweb57]

Hello @cPSamuel

Greetings ..

Happy to say I now have a new webhost, and I've learned how to properly log into cpanel and FTP directly to the public_html folder.

And that closes that chapter. Stay Safe and Well.