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5 things to try: An FTP error occurred - cannot make connection to host

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Course contents
SECTION: 9
How to backup 4:44
SECTION: 17
Finished 1:58

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Course info

53 lessons / 5 hours

Overview

NOTE: this course uses Bootstrap 3. Dreamweaver has recently updated to Bootstrap version 4. You can change it back to 3 using the ‘New Document > Bootstrap > Preferences'. Please do this before starting the course.

Some versions of Dreamweaver will require you to download the specific Bootstrap version you want to use and link it within the site. You can download Bootstrap 3 here: http://getbootstrap.com/docs/3.3/

Hi - my name is Dan and I’ll be leading you through this course on how to Make money building mobile friendly websites using Dreamweaver.

I built this course for the visual person, the right brained person. We won't hide from code but we'll use all the visual tools that makes Dreamweaver so amazing.

These are the skills you’ll need to become a professional web designer. You’ll learn how to make responsive websites in Dreamweaver as well as learning what to charge and how to manage a website project.

We cover everything you need to build your first website. From creating your first page through to uploading your website to the internet. During the course we’ll create a website for a mock creative agency - creating mobile and desktop versions. See our example here:

I’m a Dreamweaver Certified Instructor and an Adobe Certified Web Specialist.

With exercise files you can download and work along with me. At the end of each video I have a downloadable version of where we are in the process so you can compare your project with mine making it easy to see where you might have a problem.

I’ll be showing you how to work with Dreamweaver to easily create HTML & CSS websites. How to create mobile and tablet versions of your design and how to test your website on your phone.

I’ll be teaching you how to create navigation bars, how to work with responsive images and favicons.

We’ll work with Dreamweaver’s new Bootstrap integration to easily add carousels, tabbed menu’s and accordions. Even easier you’ll learn to impress clients by embedding videos, calendars, maps, event ticketing & social sharing options. 
 
 Know that I’ll be around to help - if you get lost you can message in the forum and together we’ll get you back on track.

Now it’s time to upgrade your skills, get that better job and impress your clients.

What are the requirements?

  • You'll need a copy of Dreamweaver CC 2015 or above. A free 30 day trial can be download from Adobe here.

  • No previous Dreamweaver or web design experience is necessary.

  • If you're not sure if this course is right for you. Email me what you’re trying to do and check if you’re on the right track.

What am I going to get from this course?

  • 60 lectures 3 hours of content!

  • Forum support from me. 

  • All the techniques used by professional website designers.

  • Ways to preview your designs straight to your mobile device.

  • Firm understanding of responsive web design.

  • Professional workflows and shortcuts. 

  • A wealth of other resources and websites to help your new career path.

What is the target audience?

  • YES: This course is for beginners. For people who prefer not to work in code. Aimed at people new to the world of web design. No previous Dreamweaver experience is necessary. People with knowledge of previous versions of Dreamweaver CC 2014 and below will also get great value from this course as the software has changed so much.

  • NO: This course is NOT suited to people experienced in using HTML & CSS. If you prefer to work in code only then this course isn’t right for you.

Course duration 5.5 hours + your own study.

Daniel Scott

Daniel Scott

Founder of Bring Your Own Laptop & Chief Instructor

instructor

I discovered the world of design as an art student when I stumbled upon a lab full of green & blue iMac G3’s. My initial curiosity around using the computer to create ‘art’ developed into a full-blown passion, eventually leading me to become a digital designer and founder of Bring Your Own Laptop.

Sharing and teaching are a huge part of who I am. As a certified Adobe instructor, I've had the honor of winning multiple Adobe teaching awards at their annual MAX conference. I see Bring Your Own Laptop as the supportive community I wished for when I was first starting out and intimidated by design. Through teaching, I hope to bring others along for the ride and empower my students to bring their stories, labors of love, and art into the world.
True to my Kiwi roots, I've lived in many places, and currently, I reside in Ireland with my wife and kids.

Downloads & Exercise files

Transcript

Right. So in the last video it went pretty smoothly. We connected up our remote server, we've uploaded the site  and it all went nicely. Now I betcha more than half a year are gonna have loads  of problems getting FTP connected. And it's just, uh, there's a few things. There's a few easy things to check,  and then there's a few harder ones.

So let's look at the easiest ones. The first one is to close Dreamweaver. Okay? And reopen it again. File close. Um, actually go to Dreamweaver and quit it.

Okay? I will file quit on a PC and reopen it again  and try your FTP again. Surprisingly, that fixes it sometimes. Okay? Uh, the next thing to do is, um, I'm going to go back  to my local and I'm gonna edit it. So I'm gonna go to manage sites.

I'm gonna open up my bootstrap  website, I'm gonna go to servers. I'm gonna open up here and this thing, say I'm clicking test  and it's coming up with a problem and not connecting. Um, one of the easy options is under more options,  there's this one that says, use passive FTP. Now if it's on, turn it off. If it's off, turn it on and try it both ways. If that doesn't work, check your hosting  and see what port you should be using.

It's normally 21, but some hosts don't use, um, that port. Keep clicking test. Now if that still doesn't work,  you might have your username  and FTP address around the wrong way,  or some require just the domain name,  not FTP dot and the domain name. And some of them in terms of usernames can do with it,  without the username, uh, without the at. Um, and the longer URL in there. Another thing to do is sometimes your FTP address  can be an IP address.

So you might get that from,  and if you don't get one of these, okay, you might have,  if you don't get an FTP address,  sometimes you might get an IP address. I don't know how to guess an IP address,  but that looks like a whole lot of numbers  and a whole lot of full stops. Use that instead. Alright, I'm gonna cancel that  so I don't wreck my current one. Now if it's still not working, okay,  and you've done it, you've hit tests  and it says not successfully connected. One of the other problems that I've had  that has fixed it is if I go to cancel and I cancel this  and I click Done is under Dreamweaver, under preferences.

Now if you are using a pc, it's under edit,  under under Preferences. Preferences. And there's an option here under site. Okay? And I know when I was working with the GoDaddy host,  if I have the FTB timeout really short, it went,  it didn't have enough time to actually connect. So it was had to be set 30.

I think at some stage I'd set it a lower timeout  for some other client. Um, 'cause it was hanging for a long time  and then disconnecting, I changed it to lower  and it wrecked some other hosts. So just make sure that the seconds are up high. Uh, try 30 seconds should work. Let's work for me so far. You might try a little higher if that's still not working.

If that doesn't fix the problem, make sure you come back  and reset it back to whatever the default was. And I think 30 is the default. I'm close it down. So the next thing to check  is changing your wireless network. So at the moment, I'm connected to the work  Wireless. So that means that,  um, my Dreamweaver is trying to go  through the router and out to GoDaddy, the host.

And sometimes the routers can be a bit ruthless  and not let if a dreamweaver through. So the easy thing to check,  'cause it might not be your settings, it might be  that the router is a bit too, um, security conscious. So the easy thing to do is, in my case,  I just take my laptop home and plug  and connect to the wireless network  at home and try it there. Or if you're stuck at work  or home, um,  try setting up a wireless network via your cell phone. Um, put in a hotspot and connect via that. And if it starts working, that means it's  your modem's problem.

And if it's your modem's problem, what you need  to do is find out the manufacturer of your modem  and the model number and then figure out how to get  inside your modem and change the port forwarding. You'll have to do some Googling to do it. Um, you also need to google Port forwarding Dreamweaver  to figure out what port that needs to get forwarded. Uh, to be honest, I fumbled my way through it  and got it working my home router. And that's something you might have to do. And if you do get it going and you know more about routers  and for Port forwarding  and those sorts of things, Chuck your, um,  notes in the comments, that'd be great  to help anybody else in the future.

Alright, so you still haven't got it working. You've changed different wireless  networks and it's still broken. That means it's probably Dreamweaver, not your router. So what you can do is use a different  FTP program to test it. Um, really good one. Probably the most common one is something called FileZilla.

So go to FileZilla, uh, download it. And essentially all it is is it's the tiny bit  of Dreamweaver that uploads the files. So when we go file, uh, site put,  it takes control of that, okay? And you'll have to do it manually. So Files Alert is a separate little program,  and what it means is, is that you're connected  to your local, uh, drive and its whole job. It's only job is to upload  and the files from your hard drive up to your remote site.

And you could just use that, okay? If it starts working, you put in the settings in there  and it starts working beautiful,  then we know it's Dreamweaver's problem. And you might just bypass dreamweaver's function  for uploading and just use files Alert completely separate  from Dreamweaver, not connected at all. So if FileZilla starts working for you, happy days,  it's a bit of an extra hop along to use it,  but hey, it's getting uploaded and it's working. Now the next thing is to plead ignorance  and call your hosting company and ask for help. Uh, let's say I call the hosting company GoDaddy today.

Got through after two minutes of waiting. That's not bad. And I got a great guy named Scott to help me out  with some bits that I was doing on my server. And I just plead ignorance. I just say, I'm not sure what I'm doing, please help me. And amazing, it was free took, uh,  maybe he took five minutes to sort out  and he helped me get some server problems sorted out.

So don't be afraid to call your hosting company. So many people pay for hosting and then never call them. They've got a, they've got a help desk. And yeah, spend some time chat  To them, tell 'em what you're doing with Dream Weaver  and problems you're having and the things you've tested,  and hopefully they can help you out. Now you might've got through my whole list  and it's still not working, and you have to go off  and Google and find some things and try and get it going  and say you do get it going. Please drop how you fixed it into Dream Weaver.

I'm just sharing the things that I've had problems  with in past and how I've got rounded. But if you've got something else  that you found was a really good fix  or a little quirk about your computer  and your wireless network, let us know in the comments  and, uh, we can share it with everybody  so we can all get our lovely websites online via FTP. All right, let's see you in the next video.
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