FTP - File Transfer Protocol
Protocols are rules governing transmitting and receiving of data. The most commonly known protocols areSo first we will see about File transfer protocol in this tutorials. FTP is used for transferring files over the telephone line. It is one of the simple and easy to use protocols for file exchange. For eg, if you have designed your website or web page you would like to upload the files to the server to make your friends and relatives see the page. Some sites offer the functionality whereby you upload the files by clicking the upload button provided as a web tool on a webpage. But it may be tedious if you want to upload more number of files say 10 files. Each time you click on the browse button, select the file and click the upload button. On the other hand, you can use ftp to upload any number of files at a go.
Just like the http server which can be accessed using http://www.something.com, ftp servers can be accessed using ftp://ftp.xxx.com(eg. ftp://ftp.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk).
The first ftp:// is to tell the browser to use file transfer protocol and the remaining part is the hostname. Most of the servers, which give download facility allow users to access files using ftp. Most often computers dedicated as ftp servers, have a port open to receive ftp requests (port 21 is the default port unless it is changed to run on a different port).
You can use browsers to do upload and download. But for uploads using browser, it is not secure and not reliable for large number of files. However you can use ftp client which is a software designed to transfer internet files between two computers over the internet(for this you have to have internet connection to connect to a remote computer).
FTP can be accessed using the command prompt. (In windows click start -> run -> cmd). Type ftp <hostname>, if it allows anonymous login you are inside the site. You can use common functions like dir, to list out the files and directories present there, mget to get the files from remote server and mput to put your files from your machine to the remote server.
There are also tools(ftp programs or clients) available on the net, which you can use to upload the files without the need to know the FTP commands. One such tool is FTP Commander. It is a free tool. It is available from the site http://www.internet-soft.com. It gives a partitioned look of your local files and remote files. You can manage many connections at a go. It also has the ability to store the hostname, username, password information in the tool itself. For personal websites it is a good option. So how do you use the tool. First thing is to define a connection. So on FTP Servers, click new Server. It has two sections namely Server and User. On the server side type the Name of the server(it is for your easy identification - you can name it like my personal site on blueyonder and for the ftp server name type ftp.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. This is just an example, give the server name provided for you. For ftp port, most often the ftp service is run on the port 21. If your provider is running the service on someother port type the port number.).
On the User side, type your username, password and account details. If you want to save your password, check the Save Password option, If you want to mask(password shown as *'s) check the mask password option. If Anonymous login is provided for the server, you can check the anonymous login option. For response type, better leave it as default, unless otherwise you are sure about the response that you will receive. You can then accordingly select the response type. Click the Save icon and whenever you want to make a connection just double click the servername appearing on the right side of the FTP Client. On the left side browse to the directory where your site is located and select the appropriate directory you want to upload the files to. To upload multiple files and directories shift-click(selects all files from first click to last click) or ctrl-click(selects only files on which you click) on the files and directories and click -> button in the center of the tool. The files are uploaded. If a file of the same name exists on the server, it will say so, if you want to overwrite or not. If you want to overwrite click the overwrite button or else click cancel.
Similarly if you want to download the files from remote server, you can click the <- button after selecting appropriate files. When your work is over, click the disconnect button. So FTP clients are easy to use. This tool also provides functionality to create a new directory on your local machine or your remote machine. It also offers functionality to delete the files on local machine or remove machine.
If you want to use your command prompt instead of a tool you can use the command prompt too.
For using command prompt go through this link for many ftp options available.
