Knowledge Base

How to Enter FTP Site Password in Internet Explorer

Article ID: 135975

Article Last Modified on 1/19/2007

APPLIES TO

This article was previously published under Q135975

SYMPTOMS

When you use Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.x or earlier to try to log on to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site using a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Internet address in the form

ftp://user:password@ftpserver/url-path

you may receive one of the following error messages:
  • The attempt to open "ftp://user@ftpserver/url-path" failed or was canceled.
  • The password was not allowed.
When you use Internet Explorer 5x and 6 to try to log on to a secure FTP site, you may receive the following error message:
An error occurred opening the folder on the FTP Server. Make sure you have permission to access this folder.

CAUSE

Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support secure password prompting for FTP connections.

NOTE: When you use Internet Explorer 5.x and 6 to try to log on to a secure FTP site, the option in the file menu to "Login As" will not show up if the "Enable folder view for FTP sites" in the Advanced tab of the Internet options is not checked.

RESOLUTION

To work around this issue use the appropriate method:

Internet Explorer 4.x or Earlier

To log on to an FTP site that requires a password in Internet Explorer 4.x or earlier, type the URL in this form

ftp://user:password@ftpserver/url-path

where user is your user name, ftpserver is the ftp server address, password is the password, and url-path is the directory to log in to.

If you are a member of a domain, then "ftp://domain-name\username:password@url-path" may fail because the backslash (\) is sent in as a literal character and Internet Explorer incorrectly looks for a file instead of parsing a Web address. Changing the backslash (\) in the domain-name\username to domainname%5Cusername works correctly.

NOTE: When you use the steps in this article to log on to a secure FTP site, your user name and password may be displayed in plain text in the Internet Explorer title bar or status bar, while you are connected to the FTP site.

Internet Explorer 5.x and 6

To log on to a secure FTP site in Internet Explorer 5.x and 6:
  1. Log on to the FTP site of your choice, click OK if you receive an error message, click File, and then click Login As.
  2. In the User Name box, type your user name, and then press TAB.
  3. Type your password in the Password box, and then press Login.
NOTE: The user name and password you enter in the Login As dialog box are passed through as plain text and may be displayed in the Internet Explorer title bar or status bar while you are connected to the site.

MORE INFORMATION

Note that this is not a secure method of logging on, as the password is viewable in plain text. If you require additional security, use the FTP client (Ftp.exe) that is included in your version of Windows 95 or Windows 98.

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