Question about File Manager and FTP

I used FTP long time ago. I forgot all about it. Recently, I got the business plan with hostgator. I didn't know my site's folder was gonna end up at File Manager. Someone else did it for me. Now I hear File Manager has limited disk space. My site will have graphics coming from other people. I believe its gonna take up up the disk space quite quickly. Also I notice my site is being slow. I want to move to their FTP. server. I have the client installed on my computer.

But does anyone know whether I have to put inside it all the files from the main directory or just public_html?

I am quite confused about their policy and I am not getting right answer from anywhere. They said we cannot use FTP as a place for backup. Does this mean we are not allowed to use File Manager and FTP together? Note that my backups are always stored on my own computer or some other place.
Thanks

your file manager is your site, that's where everything is stored. Your space depends on what Hostgator has given you in your plan. When you say your sites graphics are coming from other people do you mean you are linking to them or embedding them or are you hosting the images on your site?
Don't know what you mean about using ftp for a place to backup? backing up your site is done through c/panel and downloaded to your computer

blogzandstuff said:

your file manager is your site, that's where everything is stored. Your space depends on what Hostgator has given you in your plan. When you say your sites graphics are coming from other people do you mean you are linking to them or embedding them or are you hosting the images on your site?
Don't know what you mean about using ftp for a place to backup? backing up your site is done through c/panel and downloaded to your computer

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Thanks for the reply. The site I have made is for people to sign up and upload their graphics. I am using Wordpress.

I want to move to FTP, but I am confused about which folders to put there. Do I put only public_html one or all the folders I have at File Manager? Examples of the folders: ssl, tmp, mail, etc.

beakerhat said:

Thanks for the reply. The site I have made is for people to sign up and upload their graphics. I am using Wordpress.

I want to move to FTP, but I am confused about which folders to put there. Do I put only public_html one or all the folders I have at File Manager? Examples of the folders: ssl, tmp, mail, etc.

Click to expand...

Did you call customer care support member?

beakerhat said:

Thanks for the reply. The site I have made is for people to sign up and upload their graphics. I am using Wordpress.

I want to move to FTP, but I am confused about which folders to put there. Do I put only public_html one or all the folders I have at File Manager? Examples of the folders: ssl, tmp, mail, etc.

Click to expand...

You most likely already have FTP and just need an FTP client to access it. Cyberduck or FileZilla are 2 very good ones and free as well. The login for your cPanl will be your ftp login. You can setup FTP accounts for people through cPanel. A better option might be to use a script and have a web interface for people to share files. They probably already have one on one of the automated script installers that Hostgator has. Look for softoculous or Fantastico in your cPanel.

Edit: If you are setting up ftp accounts for people then I think they will go in public_ftp

jackteam said:

Did you call customer care support member?

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I had a chat with a hostgator representative. He turned out to be useless. I asked him which folders to transfer from file manager. He said he was not understanding my question.

SkullGuy said:

You most likely already have FTP and just need an FTP client to access it. Cyberduck or FileZilla are 2 very good ones and free as well. The login for your cPanl will be your ftp login. You can setup FTP accounts for people through cPanel. A better option might be to use a script and have a web interface for people to share files. They probably already have one on one of the automated script installers that Hostgator has. Look for softoculous or Fantastico in your cPanel.

Edit: If you are setting up ftp accounts for people then I think they will go in public_ftp

Click to expand...

I have installed the Filezilla FTP client and I do see hostgator provided the access to their FTP server. But they literally have nothing on which files I should transfer to it. What makes things confusing is that their policy is saying we can't use their server for backup. Fair enough! But they didn't mention whether it is okay for me to host my site from ftp while mail, ssl and the rest sit at File Manager. I mean I am just not sure whether the entire directory starting with my screen name should be transferred to their FTP server.

Ok, you have to realize that you are speaking of two different protocols. Meaning the one being FTP is nothing more than a way to transfer files from one computer to another. Now, the other which is where your site will live is HTTP which is hyper text transfer protocol. That is how we all see this website and what allows us to browse other websites with our "browsers". They are both on your server and your file manager is nothing more than an aspect of Cpanel. Cpanel is just an easy way to put all of the different options available on your website into one place. File manager is nothing more than a way to view and transfer files, sort of like FTP but not quite. It's not as good in my opinion as you can't transfer large amounts of files or data at one time. File manager lives on Cpanel just as a convenient way to work with your files.

Now all that out of the way, in order to view your website and to allow others to view it, you are going to transfer your files to public_html using FileZilla. That is the directory they need to be in. Now as for the other folders you see in the root directory like you said ssl and all that. Those you shouldn't have to mess with for the most part. Try not to mess with those folders as they perform certain functions to make your entire website work.

Just remember, Cpanel is just a way to access certain things including File Manager. File Manager is just a program or app that lets you perform simple tasks with files on your website or server.

It might be a very very good idea for you to take some courses or watch some videos on building a website and using cPanel. No offense intended, I just think maybe you have some wrong ideas about how things work with your hosting account. That's ok, not everyone knows this stuff and we all have to start and learn from somewhere.