DirectAdmin is automatically configured to use FTPS. You do not need to make any configuration changes and you can start using FTPS immediately.
FTPS is more secure than FTP and uses an SSL connection. DirectAdmin automatically uses self-signed certificates for this FTPS connection. Further information about FTP, FTPS, SFTP, and related terms can be found in our article on the differences between FTP, FTPS, and SFTP.
Step 1
With DirectAdmin, you can use out-of-the-box FTPS for your 'admin' account. If you only use DirectAdmin yourself, proceed to step 4.
Resellers and regular users need a private or shared FTP account if you want to give them permission to edit a website via FTPS. First, log in to DirectAdmin at 'User Level' and click 'FTP Management' to create an FTP account for this.

Step 2
An overview of your FTP users appears. Click on 'Create FTP account' to create an FTP user account.

Step 3
Your new FTP account will always use @yourdomainname.com as the name. Fill in the fields and select Domain as the level of access. Domain is generally preferred because the FTP user has access to data that is important for the domain:
- logs: Useful for retrieving error messages and the like.
- htpasswd: For securing elements of your site (this is beyond the scope of this manual).
- public_ftp: This folder is used for anonymous FTP access. For security reasons, anonymous access is disabled by default.
- public_html: This is the folder in which you place your site.
- stats: usage statistics from your site are stored in this folder.

Step 4
You now actually upload your website to your VPS. We use the FileZilla program in this manual and recommend using FileZilla to follow these steps one by one.
Start FileZilla and click 'File'> 'Site Manager'> 'New Site' and then enter the data as in the example below and click 'Connect'.

- Host: This is the name of your domain. In the above example, this is supporttest.nl
- Port: Use port 21 for this. DirectAdmin is configured to use FTPS over port 21.
- Protocol: Select the 'FTP File Transfer Protocol'.
- Encryption: Change this option to 'Require explicit FTP over TLS'. For optimum safety, this is mandatory and not optional.
- Logon Type: Change 'Logon Type' to 'Normal'. Using this option, you specify that a username and password is required for connecting to your VPS via FTPS.
- User: The username you created under step 3 or your 'admin' user. In the latter case, only enter 'admin' under 'User' as the name.
- Password: Enter the password of the relevant user. For the 'admin' user, this is the password that is sent in the delivery email and that you also use to login to DirectAdmin as an admin.
Step 5
You will be greeted by the message in the screenshot below. This message is shown because the certificates that DirectAdmin automatically generates for your TLS connection use the corresponding domain name (in this example supporttest.com).
FileZilla expects that the hostname of your VPS which you specified during the ordering and installation of your VPS is actually listed under 'Host'. However, this is no objection to the use of FTPS.

Select 'Always trust certificate in future sessions' and click 'Ok'.
Step 6
In FileZilla, under 'Local site', you navigate to the folder on your computer where your website is located and under 'Remote site', you click on 'public_html'.

Step 7
With a new VPS, you will see that the public_html folder already contains a number of files. The 400, 401, 403, 404 and 500.shtml files are used if your site would trigger one of these error codes (400, 401, etc.).
- Select the index.html and logo.png files and press delete to delete them. These files are only placeholders until you put your own site online.
- Then select the files and folders that you want to upload to your website on your computer and drag them to the right to the public_html folder

Your website is now online! If you do not have a database linked to your website, it is immediately visible online.
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