Help Guides

FTP Guide for Homework Files

What is FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and, as the name implies, it is a way of transferring files between computers. For IBEAMS use, it is the protocol used to send files from your computer to the server so anyone can download the file when the link is provided.
We provide 50MB of FTP space which is enough to store approximately 200 average sized PDF or word files with images. Without images it is sufficient to store up to a thousand PDF/Word files. For high usage of the homework feature this may be insufficient. This is where you can use your own servers to store homework files. If you are paying for IBEAMS via Direct Debit then you can continue to use beyond 50MB at a pro-rata rate of 1p per MB.
Note: Wherever yourdomain.com is mentioned, it should be considered as your actual domain name (public web site address) and not the IBEAMS url

Using your own FTP server

Our guide assumes you don't want to use a specific location on your server so we will recommend a safe location that most likely does not exist on your server.
  1. Contact your web admin or if you have cPanel/control panel access then you can also do this yourself. Usually you can log into your account where you purchased your hosting, go to "Hostings" or "Websites" and then click on Control Panel/cPanel.
  2. Once logged in go to the FTP section. For further assistance, please contact your web hosting provider.
  3. Create a new FTP account. This account will be used to upload files to the server.
  4. Set the username to "homework" or "ibeams" or anything unique that you prefer.
  5. Set the home directory to /public_html/homework-files or /public_html/ibeams-files
  6. Set a password and remember to note it down.
  7. Once saved, note the username (sometimes it's converted to an email address in the format username@yourdomain
  8. If you set the home directory to /public_html/homework-files then anything you upload via FTP can now be accessed via http://yourdomain.com/homework-files
  9. This will be the public access URL that you'll need for the next step. Please use https if you have SSL.

Configuring FTP on IBEAMS

  • Go to Settings > and click on the FTP settings
  • Also accessible via "Homework" Menu > Homework Settings. Click here to open that link in a new tab.
  • Under FTP details, fill in:
    1. FTP Server: This the server address. It can be an IP address, ftp.yourdomain.com, yourdomain.com. If it's not shown on your control panel, please contact your host or web developer.
    2. FTP Login: This should be the username you set when setting up FTP above.
    3. FTP Password: The password you set up above.
    4. FTP Directory: This should be relative to the home directory. If you set the home directory to 'homework' or something similar then you can leave this blank.
    5. FTP URL: This is the public URL to access the FTP folder. Please note, indexing should be turned off so no one can list the files. Please see here to understand directory indexing (which should be switched off)
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