FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the method that computers of all kinds use to send and receive files over the Internet. It was developed to enable a number of important functions by computer users, including the sharing of data and its transfer between and among computers, including web servers that host personal or business domains. It provides a standardized platform and procedure for storing files on different "hosts" and allows simple offsite backups, too.

FTP sites

An FTP site is, quite simply, an Internet-accessible storehouse holding files of all types, from programs and data to music, video, etc. To up- or download files from such a location, you must have the login information that includes the FTP user name and password. You transfer files in either a binary or ASCII (text) mode. With a binary mode you transfer "executables" (like programs) as well as media files containing audio and/or video data. The ASCII mode is used for text files such as those that are produced in plain-text editors like Windows Notepad or the Macintosh's TextEdit.

In practice, FTP is used primarily for two things. The first is simple peer-to-peer transferring of files, while the other is the maintenance of websites. The web pages made in Dreamweaver, FrontPage or the Mac's iWeb are plain text files that contain instructions for assembling pages in a browser. All of the components of the final web page are transferred by FTP to the server and displayed per the instructions in the plain text web page file.

Anonymous FTP and hosting

Normally you will connect to your FTP site or server with a login name and password. However, "anonymous FTP servers" allow you to login as a guest with no user name and just your e-mail address as the password. This gives you access to the files that have been placed in the publicly available section of the FTP site. This is a very handy way that people can safely allow downloads of files, programs, music or other data without having to manage any requests for the items.

As mentioned above, FTP is used by webmasters to upload their website components to their host server, the computer that will store all of it and "serve" it up to a visitor's browser. Every retail web hosting package will provide you a username and a password to access the FTP server for the maintenance, deletion, updating and replacing of your website files.

FTP on different computer systems

FTP is actually built into the modern computer operating systems (OS). In the Unix system it is invoked simply by typing "ftp" (without the quotation marks, of course) at the prompt. The protocol is also built into Windows and Mac OS X. For the former, you will open a DOS window and enter "ftp" (no quotes here either) to make the prompt change to and FTP one. You can then open an FTP site with the "open" command, and if you enter "help" or "?" in response to the FTP prompt you will get a list of available commands. You then simply "quit" to return to the DOS prompt.

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