TechieDan

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is how one usually transfer files over the internet. It is a pretty good way to transfer and there are lots of FTP Programs out there which one can use. For example, wordpress users can use the inner FTP manager in their Fantastico Deluxe.

FTP Uses

Basically FTP is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) way of transfering files over the network and Internet. The most common use for FTP now is to download MP3 files from the Internet. But to web designers, it is one of the most essential key feature as it allows transfer of files for uploading of new web pages, flash pages, javascripts and the like.

Accessing from the Internet uses the http:// (Website), while FTP uses the ftp:// format instead. Look below for the example of FTP!

Description	Example
Example HTTP	: http://techieDan.com
Example FTP	: ftp://techieDan.com

So now you know how to identify a FTP site. Now how do you connect to it. Well, a way to connect to a FTP site is by keying in the key. Most FTP sites have their site controlled by keys which are username and passwords. Certain sites give anonymous accounts which the username is anonymous and password is yourname@domain.com. But most are not that so free to give people use on their bandwidth. So there are specific account name and a password instead.

Using FTP Clients

Instead of accessing FTP sites using the typical web style, one can use FTP clients instead. Well, a FTP client needs to be installed on your computer and it looks very traditional like with two screen depicting one from the local and another one on the remote site. With these 2 screens, one can just drag and drop unlike the old old conventional way of writing a FTP transfer script using command line prompt.

There will be an example of FTP clients in later stages.