What is FTP

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

FTP Protocol

FTP, as the name suggests, is a protocol specifically designed to handle file transfers between two computers, usually over the Internet. HTTP is a protocol that can be used to display the information contained in the files, whereas FTP can be used to actually transfer the files between two computers.

To use FTP for transferring files, you need a client as well as a server. An FTP server, or an FTP Web site, is a computer on which FTP is installed and contains the files to be copied or downloaded. An FTP client is computer that downloads files from the FTP server. An FTP client (LAN) can also upload files to an FTP server. When an FTP client requests access to an FTP server, the server authenticates the client with the help of a username and password.

FTP servers generally allow a type of access called anonymous FTP. In this case, the user can just enter the username and password as anonymous and gain access to the public resources on the FTP server. Any private data on the server will, however, require separate authentication.

The FTP client connects to an FTP server with the help of FTP client software such as CuteFTP or Ws_FTP. The Microsoft Windows family of operating systems includes a default FTP client software, available through the MS-Dos windows, to connect to FTP servers. to access an FTP server on a computer running Windows XP/Win7/Win8.1 etc, perform the following steps:

• Click Start RUN
• Type command, and click OK. For Win XP/Win7/Win8.1 etc, type cmd, and click OK.
• Type ftp, and press Enter. the command prompt changes to ftp, indicating that the default FTP client software is active.
• Type open ftp.abc.com, and press Enter. ftp.abc.com is the FTP URL of the website http://www.abc.com.umber list item 3. 

Fig. FTP Commands Lists

Note: Here, "open" is an FTP command to connect to an FTP server. to view a complete list of FTP commands, type ?, and press Enter at the FTP prompt. 

Here, you are connected to the FTP server of the Web site. You will be asked to enter username and password. On authenticating the username and password, you can access the files and folders present on the Web site and download files to your computer.

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Thanks a lot for reading!

Neel Kamal