File Management

Im a big fan of using cPanel for file management (as Total Choice Hosting offers). Does Dreamhost offer such an interface? I haven't seen one but just wanted to make sure . . .

TIA!

Dreamhost does not use CPanel. They have their own, proprietary web panel that works very well.

Take the tour and check it out.

You could always install your own. Maybe something like
http://sourceforge.net/projects/webfilebrowser/
Sourceforge has lots of projects on it that might interest you.
I never used the browser when it was there as you can almost always use an FTP package to login on most computers.

DH's web panel does not have a file manager. You'll need to use FTP software or something else (SSH or Telnet even). Personally, I am using CuteFTP Pro on my PC and Transmit on my Mac. Not a problem, except if you want to edit .htaccess files you need to know how to view hidden files in your application, and you should know how to change permissions.

I've used both and prefer DH's panel over CPanel--though the DH panel can be slow at times.

When you use your host's file manager, are you backing everything up to your own computer? If so, good--but I haven't met many people that do. They generally make changes then leave the backups to the host.

If you edit them locally on your machine, then upload with an FTP program, you know that what's on your computer is always a current backup of what's on the web (not including things that change, like databases, etc... if applicable).

DH backs the servers up, but if anything you have is important, you should always back it up yourself, too.

I use Bulletproof FTP (bpftp.com), but it isn't free. Filezilla seems to be a popular choice and you can download it for free at http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/

Hello- thanks to you all for the respones., I do use FTP, do back-up locally, can use Telenet, etc. It's just that I like having many options! I'll definitely have to explore the Web Panel more
Cheers-
Dida