FTP

• FTP servers are often UNIX machines

• FTP clients can be any platform. A common Mac client is fetch. For Windows, LAN Workplace for DOS bundles ftp, telnet, and other applications based on TCP/IP

• FTP can be used to transfer files between your Athena home directory and the hard disk of your personal computer that is connected to MITnet. You would run the client on your personal computer and connect to one of the Athena dialup servers (athena.mit.edu or express.dialup.mit.edu).

• Any kind of files can be transferred using FTP - text, binary, images, compressed files.

• Anonymous FTP is often used for bringing files over from public archives. You log in as anonymous and give the password that is your email address.

• FTP software is popular because:
  • FTP software is available for all client platforms
  • Many Internet sites make software (public domain or shareware) available this way
  • It's an efficient protocol
  • It can be automated so that an application can call FTP without human intervention (it can work from a script)

• A Web page that allows you to download data or an application transfers that file via FTP.

Today, one often doesn't need to explicitly run an ftp program. Rather, files can be FTP'd using the Web. For example, here is a site that contains links to lots of sites from which one can download "shareware" for one's own computer.