Before starting this lesion lets first start with a basic question
What Is FTP?FTP stands for
File Transfer Protocol and it is most preferred, most secure and simplest way to transfer data (i.e. download and upload) over ‘internet’ or lets say ‘server’.
While performing most common action like downloading a file from server we are actually transferring a file from one computer located at some different location to our computer, and while uploading a file on server we are actually transferring a file from our computer to some another computer located at some other location. This is actual meaning of T (Transfer) in the word FTP
A FTP has a address and it is similar to HTTP, only the difference is it uses ftp:// as prefix instead of http://
For Example:
http://www.MyDemoSite.com/ http://ftp://ftp.MyDemoSite.comBut this is not generally we access FTP. The software/tool that makes it easy is called as
FTP Client. FTP Client is software programmed to transfer the files over the two computers on internet or it is software that helps us to use FTP to transfer files on internet. This gives an answer to another basic question
what is FTP Client? We need to install this software on our computer and then using connection properties we can connect to another computer over internet, but for this we need live internet connection enabled on our computer.
Some popular free to use Windows FTP Client tools are:
WS_FTP -
http://www.wsftp.com/ SmartFTP -
http://www.smartftp.com/ CuteFTP -
http://www.cuteftp.com/All the FTP Client software has a two pane which divide the software’s main screen in two parts may be vertically or horizontally depending upon the FTP Client software. The pane on one side is used to display files and folders on our computer and the other pane is used to display files and folders on another computer/server.
Above screen shows Screen shot of WS_FTP tool with two panes.
When you start the FTP Client software it will ask you to enter your site/server information which will allow the software to connect to server.
The most common information that are required or asked by FTP Client is:
- Profile Name: It is a simple name, and anything can be given for this. It’s just a name given to your profile to identify the profile from list of profiles. Selecting a profile name according to domain name is preferred. For example, if the domain name is mygamesite.com then you can give profile name as MyGameSiteProfile etc.
- Host Type: Provide your server type where your site is hosted. You can skip this actually. For example, provide ‘WINDOWS’ if your site is hosted on windows server.
- User ID: Provide your server userid here.
- Password: Provide your server password.
Different FTP Client software may have different title names for this information. Once all the details are provided FTP Client software will connect to the server and you will see list of files and folders from your computer on left pane of software window and list of files and folders from server computer on right side of pane.
To transfer the files you will need to just drag and drop the required files from one pane to another pane. For example, if you want to download a required file then select the file from list of files in right pane and drag-drop it on left side of pane. You can even drag-drop entire folders or multiple files.
That’s all! Using all these simple steps you can use any FTP Client software easily to transfer files on internet.
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