JimE wrote: is there a way to ftp the files to the correct folders?

No need to.

when I open mod_sbsubscriptions_4.0.0-rc.1 there are two folders afiles3 and afilej15 plus mod_subscriptions.xml. which folder do I use the files from ? the contents look the same

when I ftp to the site I found joomla3/modules/mod_subscriptions. with files of the same names. how do I know which folder to replace these files from in the zip file

do I need to delete files loaded from mod_subs_300.zip?

If you install the mod_sbsubscriptions_4.0.0-rc.1 zip file using your Joomla Extension manager you should be ok as it will over-write the old module.

JimE wrote: no can do can not get the site to come up in any form. can't get to admin to use joomla extension manager. is there an other way to open Joomla Extension manager ?

Not understanding what you wrote.

If you login to backend Joomla what do you see?

Please send me a private message with backend superadmin access and FTP access and I will see what went wrong.