ftp- how does this work???

man, oh, man. I can't get my page started. how do I get my new site up and running? the whole ftp thing isn't working for me at all (duh). it's not as easy as the free page I have where they have something called a web-shell. I have internet explorer and I'm told I can upload files to dreamhost through their ftp program or something? can you help? this sucks. ah, and why does it cost $50/year to register a .com, over $100/year to host it, then pay up even more money for ftp software??? and then if you're as big a dumb ass about all this as I am, get frustrated and think "Hey, this sucks BAD. Maybe I should get somebody else to do this for me." anyhow, if you can help me out I'd greatly appreciate it, so all I paid doesn't go down the drain, and I never get off my free site with all the LAME pop-up ads. HELP. thanks.

This is a good example of a question that should be directed to Dreamhost support. You may also want to check the kbase if you haven't already - http://kbase.newdream.net

The 'curious about dreamhost' section is designed for prospective customers, so if you're not going to contact support or check the kbase, you should probably put this question under 'general troubleshooting'.

You can reach support from the support tab of the web panel or else by email at support@dreamhost.com.

There are a number of free FTP clients which you can use, or - in a pinch - you can use your web browser to FTP your HTML files.

All this is probably coming as a shock to you since you seem to have just made the jump from the free-web site services.

The cost of domain name registration varies depending on which company you register with. $50/year is high, there are some cheaper ones out there. There is a list of registrars at http://www.internic.net/regist.html

$100/year for web hosting is very cheap. I consider $200/year for hosting to be a very resonable price for a personal web site (non-business), especially if you see some of the cost of other services out there. But cost should take into account the features available, since a lot of web hosts start businesses as well as individuals. There are web hosts that cost as little as $60/year but the ones I've seen that offer at that price give only a skimpy amount of storage space and little to no features. It just depends on what you find and what you need.

There are decent yet free FTP programs out there. I use Fetch when I'm on a Mac, and WS_FTP when I'm on Windows. Run a search at a place like http://www.download.com/ to see what's available. DreamHost doesn't offer its own FTP program, the last that I heard. FTP is the standard way of uploading files to a web host for all paid host services out there, and free web hosts usually offer FTP too.

Are you having problems with your FTP program? What kind of problems? You weren't very detailed on your problem. If this is the first time you've ever used an FTP program, just connect to ftp.yourdomainname.com (or .org or whatever your Top Level Domain is), enter your FTP user name (which should be different from your control panel user name) and password and you should get connected.

DreamHost does offer an web control panel but it doesn't include web-based file manager. Despite that the DreamHost panel is pretty rich in features and controls, since many hosts don't seem to offer any kind of web-based control at all.

Alex
http://www.gerbilbox.com/

“I have internet explorer and I'm told I can upload files to dreamhost through their ftp program or something?”
Yes, internet explorer has it's own built in ftp client. to access it just type in the ftpurl into the address box. an example would be:
  ftp://username:password@mydomain.com

although their ftp client is rather limited on its functions. i would highly suggest an alternate ftp client, as they have suggested below.