Introduction to FTP

FTP is short form for File Transfer Protocol. Prior to the arrival of http, ftp was used to send files from one computer to the other. Some people still use FTP in their sites which gives an opportunity to transfer or download files from the other computer. Generally, software and other documentations are kept in a web directory. Usually http contains the web pages which can be viewed and read, but FTP will contain only files and folders. The uncommon reason for the usage of FTP is to share the files in a LAN or WAN. If the files are shared as normal windows share, then there is a chance for others to view the files/videos directly from your computer, thus increasing your CPU and RAM usage. If the same are shared through FTP, then there is no chance to view, just downloading is the option.

FTP clients like Filezilla, FireFTP, cuteFTp are used to upload the files to the web server. The biggest criticism about FTP is the passwords are sent in clear text form which can be easily interpreted by hackers, so it is very unsecure. There is one more FTP known as secured FTP which helps in securely transferring the files from client to the server. SSH client is used for this purpose.