Originally posted by RustyZip
OK - This might seem like a silly question, but what actually is FTP???
Ok, so its File Transfer protocol (is it????)
FTP (File Transfer Protocol, as you correctly identified) is a part of the TCP/IP stack (which is a suite of protocols) and is used to transfer files to and fro between computers on TCP/IP networks. TCP/IP is the protocol suite used on the internet, and in most modern networks.
Here is a definition from
www.techweb.com :
File Transfer Protocol) A protocol used to transfer files over a TCP/IP network (Internet, UNIX, etc.). For example, after developing the HTML pages for a Web site on a local machine, they are typically uploaded to the Web server using FTP.
FTP includes functions to log onto the network, list directories and copy files. It can also convert between the ASCII and EBCDIC character codes. FTP operations can be performed by typing commands at a command prompt or via an FTP utility running under a graphical interface such as Windows. FTP transfers can also be initiated from within a Web browser by entering the URL preceded with
ftp://.
Unlike e-mail programs in which graphics and program files have to be "attached," FTP is designed to handle binary files directly and does not add the overhead of encoding and decoding the data.
The term is also used as a verb; for example, "let's FTP them the file." See FTP commands, anonymous FTP and TFTP.
http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm?term=FTP
Here is what an FTP client looks like:
What's pretty neat about it is that its supported on any machine that has a TCP/IP stack... and that's just about everything these days. Thusly, one might upload files from a linux client to a windows server, or vice versa.
Mostly, your main contact will be with downloading files from an FTP server. For example, when a new version of Red Hat Linux comes out, I use an FTP client software like those ones mentioned here to connect to the server and download .iso files which have been placed there.
But its useful for me to run an FTP server at home, so I can upload and download files to and from my work machine, so if there is an mp3 that I want to listen to, I can download it or I can upload files to my home machine as well if I want.
Its possible to set up FTP so that different users have different home directories, so that I can make "virtual directories" for different people that I know, and make files I know that they might want available to them there.
One of its disadvantages is that its authentication (the tranmission of the username and password and their acceptance) is NOT encrypted, and any file in your path between the client and server machines (i.e. anything you see when you do a traceroute) is disabled.
Large servers like the one I download the Red Hat .iso files from have anonymous access enabled, and allow people to connect using a kind of "dummy" password, but at home its best to disable that before someone starts to try to hack into my system.
Any other questions post them. There's a lot more to it than that but that's the fast and dirty version....
You can connect to an ftp server in Windows or UNIX (i.e. any Linux) by using this command:
ftp server.domain.com
where server.domain.com is the full name of the server. The IP address is also acceptable....
FTP client software takes the headache out of mucking around in a command prompt by providing a graphical interface.