FTP
🎬 This chapter has a 10:53 video: Network Protocols →A school’s Delhi branch needs to send its exam files to the branch in Kanpur, every week. It does not need a web page. It needs whole files, moved safely from one computer to another. That job has its own protocol.
1What FTP is
The computer that asks is the FTP client. The computer that keeps the files is the FTP server. Copying a file from the server to your computer is a download; copying one from your computer to the server is an upload.
Download a file or upload one; try a wrong password too. Drag sideways to turn.
2How a transfer happens
- FTP sets up a connection between the two computers.
- The user usually logs in with a user ID and password. (Some servers allow anonymous FTP, with no password, for public files.)
- The user names the file and where it is.
- Another connection is set up, and the file itself is transferred directly between the two machines.
FTP also takes care of differences between the two computers: different ways of naming files, different ways of storing text and data, and different folder structures.
3HTTP vs FTP, and FTP vs SMTP
CBSE has asked for both of these differences.
| HTTP | FTP | |
|---|---|---|
| Used for | Accessing web pages on the World Wide Web | Transferring files between two computers |
| What you get | A page shown in the browser | A file copied onto your computer (download) or the server (upload) |
| Login | Usually not needed to view a page | Usually a user ID and password |
| FTP | SMTP | |
|---|---|---|
| Full form | File Transfer Protocol | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol |
| Used for | Transferring files between computers | Sending email |
| Between | An FTP client and an FTP server | Your mail app and mail servers, and mail server to mail server |
4From the board papers
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(B) FTP — CBSE’s marking scheme answer.
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FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
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HTTP is used to access web pages on the World Wide Web, while FTP is used to transfer files (upload and download) between computers.
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(1) FTP (File Transfer Protocol) transfers files between computers; SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) sends email. (2) FTP works between an FTP client and an FTP server, usually after logging in; SMTP carries mail from the sender’s mail app to its mail server and from there to the receiver’s mail server.
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File Transfer Protocol. It is used to transfer files from one computer to another over a network.
5Check yourself
Copying a file from an FTP server onto your own computer is called:
Which of these is a job for FTP rather than HTTP?