FTP is an abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is a part of TCP/IP suite. Its existence is as old as the Internet itself. The first version of FTP dates back to early 1970's and is still commonly used on the Internet. In the early days of Internet, several programs such as e-mail existed for moving files from one computer to another. But these programs did most of their work behind the scenes without any user interaction. As companies and research institutions began to store & share their data on computers a method of data warehousing came into existence. FTP was created as a way for an individual to contact those computers rind retrieves those files interactively. FTP allowed people on the network to browse through directories of files, select what they wanted & retrieve those ales to their own computers. Besides downloading a file, FTP can also be used to upload ales from your computer to mother computer on the Internet. Like most of the other Internet applications. FTP use, are Client-Server approach. In order to transfer files using FTP, your need to have a FTP program or FTP client to be installed on your computer. The client may be a command line FTP (a utility program provided as a part of the operating system), a modem web browser (success Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator) or FTP software’s such as Cute FTP, WS_FTP which you can easily download run the Internet.

FTP server allows you to download & upload files such can be of wide range of files types & formats such as ASCII, EBCDIC & binary. Some files on FTP servers are available for everyone, while some have authorized access. In Windows system, inarch a FTP server that is integrated won MS Web Server Internet Information Services (IIS) & on Unix or Linux system, the FTP server is installed as a separate program and not integrated with web server.

Working of FTP

FTP works on Client server approach.

• Whenever a FTP client wants to download files from a remote FTP server it contacts the sercer which prompts the user to enter a username and a password.
• After you have specified the username and password, a successful connection known as commend link is established between the client and the server. Now, FTP server program is ready to server the client’s request for the File Transfer.
• FTP Server displays a large number of directories or folders. After selecting a particular folder from where you want to download a file, a second connection known as data connection is opened up which can transfer file either in ASCII mode or binary mode. After the file is downloaded, the data connection is closed automatically but other command link remains open.

Similarly, you can download more files. When your work is finished, you log off and command link connection closes. You are no longer connected to the FTP Server.

Fig: Conceptual Representation of working of FTP

Advantages:

FTP provides numerous advantages which is the reason why people prefer to download and upload files using FTP. Some of these include:

• Any FTP client running on a Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux and other operating system can use the F I P Server.
• FTP can be used to upload or download files of almost any size from or to a central server anywhere in the world, unlike email that has limited downloading facility.
• It is very simple, fast & reliable to transfer files from FIP servers either with the help of commands or windows based softwares such as CuteFTP, WS_FTP etc.
• It shields user from variations in a file storage system among FTP servers. It downloads the files from the Unix based FTP Server on the Window based client.
• It provides you the facility to transfer files either in binary mode or in ASCII mode hut some softwares like MS FrontPage do not have such choice.
• You can download multiple files with a single VIP command.

Disadvantages:

• FTP has little security protection when performing file transfer. The logon information that the user enters before connecting is sent unencrypted across the network. This logon information can be used by unauthorized user to access other systems.

To make file Transfer more secure, several enhancements have been made on the FTP including SFTP, SSH protected FTP and BBFTP.

• If the FTP client is accessing FTP Server using command line software then it needs to be aware about the working of the Unix operating system as most of the FTP Servers are Unix based.
• Although there are tens of thousands of anonymous FTP Servers, but there is no central directory in which you can look up for a particular file.
• It is not always user friendly. To retrieve a file, the user needs to know which FTP Server it is on and the directory where it is located along with the specific filenames of the file.

Softwares Available For FTP

Depending on what you are planning to do with your FTP software you should pick best one. There are many software available. The three software packages are:

• Cute FTP
• FTP Explorer
• Elite FTP

Each of these has its own good and bad points.

• Cute FTP used to be the best shareware FTP program around. It is easy to use and has many functions. Unfortunately, because it has become so popular, the latest version only allows you to transfer one file at a time unless you register.
• FTP Explorer is not such a good program as Cute FTP but it is freeware so there are no annoying nag-screens.
• Elite FTP is not such a good program for uploading standard files but better if you are working with CGI as you can send commands to the server by typing them in. This will work for CGI as it does not work with some servers properly and for some reason can’t rename files.