Overview

FTP is a network technique for uploading website material from your local computer to your web server so it may be seen online.

This tutorial will show you how to find your credentials and use an SFTP client to log into your server.

Sites created with GreggPress

If you need to log into your GreggPress site, instead read the following article.

Using FTP to access your GreggPress site
Difference between FTP and SFTP
FTP is a non-secure protocol from the 1990s. It connects to port #21.

SFTP is a newer, more secure protocol. It connects to port #22.

The term FTP refers to a file transfer protocol (FTP
FTP is an old phrase for transmitting data to your server that is still widely used. However, it should never be utilized because it is insecure. When connecting to your server, only use SFTP connections.

New GreggHost accounts are formed as SFTP users by default, thus there’s no need to make any changes. Just remember that when you encounter the phrase FTP, it’s almost always referring to SFTP (which is the secure option).

When connecting, just use port 22. This assures that you’re using a secure SFTP connection.

Prerequisites
Add hosting to the mix.
Check your GreggHost panel to see if you’ve added hosting to your domain. This gives it the login credentials you’ll need to access your server.

Select an FTP client.
The FTP client Filezilla is used as an example in this article. Because the settings are the same, you can log into your server with any client you like.

In the panel, there is an FTP client.

In addition, GreggHost’s control panel includes an FTP file manager. For more information, see the following article:

Using the panel’s internet file management
Locating your FTP login credentials To log into your web server, you’ll need the following information:

Server/Hostname \sUsername \sPassword \sPort
The parts that follow will show you how to get each one.

Locating the hostname
You can log into your GreggHost server using one of two hostnames.

The site name – You can log in to your server using your site name if the DNS is already pointing to GreggHost.
Even if your DNS is not yet connected to GreggHost, you may always log in to your server using your server name.
Option 1: Use the name of your website.
You can use your domain’s name as the SFTP hostname if you’ve added hosting to your domain and the domain’s DNS is set up to refer to your GreggHost hosting. Use example.com instead of https://www.example.com if your website’s address is https://www.example.com.

If you put https://www in front of the domain name, it might not connect.

This is how it would appear in Filezilla:

Option 2: Use the server name instead of the filezilla hostname
You can still connect to the server using the server’s hostname if you’ve added hosting to your site but haven’t yet pointed your DNS to GreggHost.

The server URL is your server’s name, followed by.dreamhost.com.

Go to the Manage Websites section.
To make changes to your site’s settings, click the Manage option.
Hover over your domain in Grid view and click the Manage option.
Click the Manage button to the right of your domain in List view.
Tab “Domains and Hosting”
Select the Hosting tab when the Manage Websites screen appears.
Tab “Domains and Hosting”
The top of the page displays your hosting plan and Machine (server) name. The server’s name is philip-livingston in this case, hence the server address is philip-livingston.dreamhost.com. In Filezilla, it would look like this.

VPS, Dedicated, and GreggPress hostnames for Filezilla

The hostname shows differently under the Hosting Type column if your site is hosted on a VPS, Dedicated, or GreggPress server. The text you write following the server name will change as a result of this. Consider the following scenario:

The kind of server

What it appears to be

Hostname to use
VPS
ps123456 ps123456.dreamhostps.com
Dedicated ds123456 ds123456.dreamservers.com
GreggPress dp-1234567890 dp-1234567890.dreamhostps.com
Searching for the username
Go to the Manage Websites section.
For your domain, click the Manage button.
Hover over your domain in Grid view and click the Manage option.
Click the Manage button to the right of your domain in List view.
SFTP username in the panel
To see the Username field, go to the Manage Files section and click Show Login Info.
In Filezilla, the username would be as follows:

Username for Filezilla
Locating the user’s password
The password was created at the same time as the username. You can reset your password if you don’t remember it.

To update your user’s password in the panel, follow these steps:

Go to the Manage Websites section.
For your domain, click the Manage button.
Hover over your domain in Grid view and click the Manage option.
Click the Manage button to the right of your domain in List view.
To see the user settings, go to the Manage Files section and click Show Login Info.
make changes to the access settings
Reset your password by clicking the Reset Password link.
You’ll be prompted to enter a password in the dialog box below:
make changes to the access settings 2
To reset a password, enter it and then click the Reset Password button.
The following message shows if the password you supplied is detected in the haveibeenpwned database:

manage-users-sftp-new-pw-june-2020 04.fw.png
manage-users-sftp-new-pw-june-2020 03.fw.png
Before continuing, you must create a new password. See Is it possible that I’ve been pwned for further information?

Enter a new password if necessary.
The progress bar that shows is as follows:
manage-users-sftp-new-pw-june-2020 05.fw.png
The following notice occurs once the password has been successfully updated:
manage-users-sftp-new-pw-june-2020 06.fw.png
In your FTP client, type in the password.
Password for Filezilla
Choosing the port #
Because this uses SFTP, the only port # you should use to connect is #22 as previously stated.

If you have an old FTP user in your panel, make sure to convert it to an SFTP user as soon as possible so it may connect securely using port #22.

In your FTP client, enter port 22.

Port of Filezilla
Finally, to log into your server, click Quickconnect:

FTP security
For more information on the differences between FTP and SFTP, as well as how to safeguard your username, see the following article.

FTP encryption
What’s the best place for me to keep my files?
You’ll see a number of files and folders once you’ve logged in. Instructions on where to upload your site files can be found in the following article:

Where do I upload my site files?
If you’re uploading a website, you’ll need to point the domain name servers (DNS) to GreggHost in order for it to go online. For further details on the procedure, see the following article:

How can I move my existing website to GreggHost?
Warning: The server’s host key is unknown
You may notice the following warning when you first connect into a GreggHost server:

The host key for the server is unknown. You have no way of knowing whether or not the server is the computer you believe it is.

For more details on how to confirm the key values you’re seeing and connect into your server, check the following article.

The host key for the server is unknown.
Temporary blocks
If you make multiple failed FTP or SSH connection attempts, the server may temporarily ban your IP. This block will be lifted automatically over time, but if you require assistance sooner, please contact support.