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File
Transfer Protocol (FTP)
The file transfer
protocol is the primary method of transferring files over the Internet
at very high speed.
Transfer
Modes
Two transfer
modes are used in FTP. ASCII and BINARY. ASCII mode is used for
the transfer of files consisting of plain text while the BINARY
mode is used all types of files not consisting of plain text (such
as sound, video, executables, images etc.). ASCII is called type
A (for ASCII) and binary is called type I (for Image). Various character
translations take place between computers to make the file more
readable in ASCII transfers. BINARY transfers do not make any changes
to any character of file.
Anonymous
FTP
A virtue of
FTP is that you do not need to have a valid user account on the
target domain. You can access the files on the FTP site by using
an anonymous user account if the domain allows you. You enter the
user name as anonymous and the password is your email address.
FTP clients
You can always
type the command ftp on your Windows 9x, Windows NT or UNIX machine
to invoke a command oriented FTP client. Below are some common GUI
(Graphical User Interface) clients. To see a specific FTP tutorial
for one of these applications, please click on links below:
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