FTP site record screen
You will need the following information before using an FTP site:
- FTP site name (e.g. ftp.repeatsoftware.com)
- FTP username
- FTP password
and the location of the files you want to use.
Format of FTP site names
The FTP site name should be in the format:
ftp.yourdomain.com
without any folder information adding to the end such as:
ftp.yourdomain.com/MyFolder
Folder information is added to the file names when you use your FTP site connection to select files in Repeat Signage.
Notes
Encryption - The FTP Manager supports standard, unencrypted plain text FTP, which is the standard but insecure way of connecting to FTP sites. Also support EXPLICIT FTP OVER TLS which allows you to connect securely using encryption to your FTP site, but only if your FTP site supports this. If you have your own web server you can use the free Filezilla server that allows you to secure your FTP connections using an SSL certificate.
Anonymous connection - This is a public ftp site such as ftp.adobe.com which doesn't need a username or password. Ticking the 'Anonymous connection' means that you don't have to enter a username and password.
FTP port number - Computers use ports so that they can offer several services to users from one machine. Computers hosting FTP sites usually use port 21 in order to provide an FTP service for the transfer of files. The computer listens on port 21 for incoming FTP connections from FTP software. Web server computers use port 80 to listen for people requesting website pages from browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox. Keep the port number on 21 unless you have been given different connection details.
Use PASV mode - PASV is passive mode. Leave un-ticked unless you understand what PASV is and require it. If you save your record and connect to the FTP server but get a message "ERROR DOWNLOADING LISTING" then you will most likely have this setting wrong, so you would then need to go back and change it.
Trouble shooting
If you add all your connection details (FTP site, username, password, etc) in and get a "Cannot connect to FTP site" message, then some of your connection details are likely to be incorrect. First thing to do is to make sure you have an active Internet connection first if you are connecting to an online service.
We would recommend you download the free FileZilla FTP Client from:
https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client
You can use this to add in your connect details and make sure everything is working and you can connect from your machine.
Passive mode (PASV) - Sometimes all your connection details are correct and you click on 'Connect' and just sit their waiting for ages which says "ERROR DOWNLOADING LISTING". This will usually mean that you have the was passive mode setting. Edit your connection record and change the 'Use PASV mode' tickbox from off to on, or visa versa, and then test again.
Explicit FTP over TLS - We found with our own secure FTP servers that with a plain text password connection, then we had to have PASV off, but when securing the same site with Explicit FTP over TLS, then we had to switch to PASV mode otherwise we couldn't upload files to our servers.