Concept in Definition ABC

Although the majority of Internet users and, especially, the youngest, are not aware of this service, one of the first that existed in Internet And that predates the World Wide Web, the truth is that we still use it to a great extent today.

The protocol File Transfer Protocol (FTP) facilitates the transfer of computer files of any type over a TCP / IP network.

It is a protocol client server, that is, on one side you need a program (the server) that is "listening" permanently requests from Internet users, who need a client program to connect.

This can be both with interface graph as in the command line, having to type the file upload and download commands.

In fact, the first FTP clients were command-line for large mainframe operating systems.

In fact, all operating systems today include their command line FTP client, which is accessible by opening a command line window and typing, just FTP.

In order to work with it, it will be necessary for us to know the address of the FTP server to connect to, and the orders to be entered in the client, which will be, basically, the following:

• or server_name allows us to open a remote server
• ls or dir to list the files contained in the current directory of the remote server
• CD directory_name enters, on the remote server, on the binder or directory that we indicate
• get name of_file download the file that we indicate, from the remote server, to the computer local
• put filename upload file from local computer to remote server
• bye close the connection and exit the program

There are many more commands, but these are the main ones. The use of command line FTP declined markedly with the popularization of the Internet among users late to mid-1990s, leading to the use of graphical clients for major operating systems What Windows, Mac OS X and GNU / Linux.

We often find FTP masked in the files referenced on a web page for download

For example, in the executable files of programs or drivers that we download from the Internet, and that are hosted on an FTP server with a link on the download page.

Thanks to this, the FTP protocol is, in most cases, masked on the web, so that Internet users do not have to know it, or even know that it exists.

In addition, FTP has the particularity of being able to accept anonymous connections, so that we do not need any authorization or name of Username and password. This possibility must be explicitly activated on the server.

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