We don't attempt to provide a tutorial since there are hundreds of FTP programs that can be used. If you already have a favorite FTP program, then use it. If you aren't familiar with FTP, you may find that using Windows Explorer is easiest (not the Internet Explorer web browser). You may also want to get help from a coworker or someone else knowledgeable about FTP.
Many Windows users use Windows Explorer to access FTP sites and find it the easiest way, even though it doesn't offer as much control as other options. Windows Explorer is a separate program independent of your web browser.
There are several ways to start Windows Explorer, including:
To make finding Windows Explorer easier, put a shortcut to "explorer" on your desktop.
Once you've started Windows Explorer, look for the Address Bar at the top. If you don't see it, click View, Toolbars, and select Address Bar. You can enter the URL for our FTP server in your Windows Explorer Address Bar field as follows:
To use anonymous FTP to access the /pub area on our site, simply use the following URL in Windows Explorer (note that it starts with ftp:// not http://)
| ftp://ftpgis.pima.gov/pub/ | Public Data Download (Username and password are not required.) See more. |
For other password protected areas of the FTP server, if you are working on a project with a member of our staff you will be given the required username and password to substitute in the URL. Enter the username and password as part of the URL in Windows Explorer. Use a URL like the following, substituting the correct username and password you were give for "username" and "password" in the URL. Note the username and password following the slashes and the colon between them.
| ftp://username:password@ftpgis.pima.gov/gislib/ | GIS Library Data. See Pima County GIS Data FTP Server to learn about this data and how to request a username and password. |
| ftp://username:password@ftpgis.pima.gov/projects/ | Project Data Transfer. Passwords are limited to certain project collaborators. Do not use for confidential data. All files are deleted after seven days. See more. |
While it's possible to save these URLs as Favorites, it's a little tricky to get the username and password included. You might also make a shortcut on your desktop. In both cases, keep in mind that the saved username and password will not be secure from access by others.
FTP download and upload with Windows Explorer is straightforward provided you use the necessary passwords and permissions. To transfer data, select one or more files, then drag and drop or use copy and paste. For download, you can also right-click on the selected file(s) and choose "Copy To Folder...".
Starting with Internet Explorer 7, FTP is no longer fully supported by Internet Explorer. You may be able to download, but not upload. Windows Explorer is now the better choice as described above.
FTP may work with other web browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Mac's Safari, but we haven't tested them. We no longer recommend using web browsers for FTP.
To try a web browser with our FTP server you can either enter the URLs as described under "Windows Explorer" above or use our ftpgis.pima.gov FTP Server Logon page. Note that a username and password is required to access all areas of the FTP server except for the /pub Anonymous Public Data Download area.
Command line FTP is available in most operating systems and is not particularly easy to use, although it's a good choice if you know how to use it. Entering ftp ftpgis.pima.gov at the operating system command prompt starts the command line FTP program and opens our site. In this case, the first "ftp" is the name of the FTP program and the rest is our server name. It's important to understand the distinction.
There are probably 100 other FTP programs to choose from, some free, some not. Many are very good. For example, see WS_FTP or CuteFTP.