What is a FTP server?

Question

I want to know what a FTP server is and what it's used for. I also want to know how to get it or know what mine FTP server is. Thanks.

Answer 1

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and it's essentially a code of conduct (i.e. protocol) for transferring large files over a network, internetwork, or the Internet. An FTP server is a program that handles incoming requests for file tranfers. It runs on a computer connected to a network (or the Internet) and listens to port 21 (by default) for remote computers asking to upload or download something.



Unless you've specifically installed an FTP server on your computer you don't have one. You might have an FTP client, which is what you'd use to connect to an FTP server and either upload or download files. FileZilla is one such client, although most web browsers (Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc.) can usually download from an FTP site even though they're primarily HTTP clients. HTTP stands for Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol, and is used for accessing web pages.

Answer 2

A server holds resources, that are to be distributed to clients.

A data base server hold database information, which can be accessed by its clients. A web server holds web pages that can be accessed by valid users, A mail server has mails stored on it, which can be accessed by its mail clients. In all these servers, a user should be authrosed and authenticated to access the resources.



An FTP server holds files of any form, say word documents, excel sheets, EXE files etc. A valid FTP user can access his FTP server and get the files downloaded into his computer. Alternately, he can also upload files to the FTP server for use by other users.



Each server follows its own protocols. Web server follows HTTP protocol, mail server follows SMTP protocols. Similarly the FTP server follows FTP protocol, hence the name FTP server.



The ftp server address starts with ftp//.....



If you want to send a file to , say 100 clients, it is better to upload it in an FTP server and send a link of the file to the 100 clients. The clients can download the files whenever they are free and the traffic is low.

Answer 3

FTP is "File Transfer Protocol". As the name implies, it is used to transfer files. With FTP you must enter a valid username and password to be able to upload / download files. There is something called "anonymous FTP" where you type the generic username "anonymous" or "ftp" and then it lets you enter anything for the password. Usually this "anonymous" user does not have permissions to upload, only to download. When you use a web browser and the URL starts our "ftp://" instead of "http://", then you are using anonymous FTP.



There will be an FTP server and an FTP client. An FTP server is a program running on a computer that listens for incoming FTP traffic. An FTP client is a program you use to talk to an FTP server, in order to download/upload files. Most computers (Windows, Macs, Unix, etc.) come with an FTP client program. Most web browsers can be used as FTP clients.



If you have Unix or a Mac, your computer comes with an FTP server, but it may be disabled by default. Windows does not typically come with an FTP server (Microsoft does make one, but I think you have to do some kind of custom install in order to install it). Their FTP server is a joke anyway.



If you want an FTP server, I would recommend you go out to SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/ and search for one. There is a wide variety of them available. I am most familiar with ProFTPd and WU-FTPD, which are both made for Unix (but may have been ported over to PCs). I've seen some Java based FTP servers that looked rather simple.



Lastly, realize your FTP traffic is not encrypted in any way. That means other snooping on your network traffic could see your username and password (not a big deal with anonymous FTP). You might consider using SSH's "scp" or "sftp" instead, if that is an option. Search Yahoo for PuTTY for windows based SSH software.

Answer 4

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a network protocol used to exchange and manipulate files over a TCP computer network, such as the Internet. An FTP client may connect to an FTP server to manipulate files on that server.

Answer 5

FTP is actually a protocol and a program. It is designed to transfer files, and that's all you really need to know. If you were do set up an FTP server on your computer, you could navigate to it by typing "ftp://" and then your IP address.



However you need to install an FTP server first. There are tons of free programs out there- try CesarFTP

Answer 6

ftp stands for file transfer protocol. it's used to download / upload files to servers. two parts, client & server. you can connect to most servers by a web browser, and all others you can use an ftp client for uploading and such. if you want your own server and you have windows ... install IIS with the FTP plugins. However, most ISPs cringe at the idea of their clients hosting FTP servers as they generally become a hotbed for the transfer of copyrighted materials.