F T P and FrontPage

I know you've been told a thousand times not to FTP files to a FrontPage web or you will corrupt the server extensions, but...

You can very successfully upload certain files by FTP to a server running the FP extensions if you're careful and familiar with FTP.

However, before diving into FrontPage it would definitely be to your advantage to familiarize yourself with FTP publishing and to publish several sites with it so you will understand file structure and how it is handled on different servers. It will give you an advantage where FrontPage is concerned.

Yes, there is a chance that you could corrupt the server extensions that FrontPage uses to automate your publishing if you delete or overwrite one of these files. If you choose to FTP, it's at your own risk. It is recommended that you allow FrontPage to do the job it was designed for, which is keeping track of all your pages, structure, components and file transfers on your webs as much as possible.

Any files that FP creates, adds to or tracks on the remote server should be left alone. You can safely FTP images, .js files, pages &.pdf's and in some cases you may have no other choice.

Certain files (if you use them) must be upload FTP (such as .js in ASCII and some .pdf updated files) as FP 2000 & 2002 will not publish them by file comparison  if updated, although it will publish them initially. In FP 2002, you can use the source file time stamps when you publish as an option, or select to publish files individually.

You cannot, however, FTP a whole site on top of a FP published site with server extension support, or you will most definitely overwrite the server extension files.

If your web starts acting erratic, it's a clue that the server extensions may have been corrupted. If that should happen, and you cannot correct it, contact your host and have them reinstall the server extensions. I guarantee you, it won't be the first time they've heard it.