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How to Create and Upload Files

Generally, students will create all the files for their projects on Macs or PC's and upload the files to a course web server to publish them on the web. Web pages may be created using any web page editor.
Students upload their own files either by using standard file transfer software, such as Fetch or WinSCP, or by configuring a web editing application such as Dreamweaver. 

What is SFTP?

SFTP (SSH file transfer protocol) is a way of securely exchanging files between your computer and other computers over the internet. SFTP allows you to download files from a remote computer to your local computer or upload files from your local computer to another remote computer. If the remote computer is a web server, moving files to the server is necessary to make your files available via a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox.

Despite the similarity in name and function, SFTP is a completely different protocol from FTP.  To use SFTP for secure connections, the server you are connecting to must also support SFTP.   The course web hosting environment and the streaming server both support SFTP.


How Do I Use SFTP?

In order to connect to any SFTP server for which you have an account, you need the following information, which should be supplied to you by the system administrator.

  • The address of the SFTPserver
  • The user ID for your account
  • The password for your user ID (If you forgot your password, click here for instructions on how to reset it.)

Instructions for transferring files to the course web server are available in these PDF's:


Alternatives to Using SFTP Client Software

  • Web development applications such as Adobe Dreamweaver allow you to configure the SFTP settings from within the tool instead of using a separate SFTP client program.
  • Web applications such as Blackboard don’t require FTP or SFTP to move files because there are built-in upload tools available to post files on your Blackboard course site.
  • Some departments may have their computers and servers linked with a file sharing system or Webdav so you can move your files directly to another computer as simply as moving files between directories.

Please contact atc_support@cornell.edu with questions about our services or for assistance.