Why FTP?

FTP is a method of transmitting or recieving files across the Internet and stands for File Transfer Protocol. The two most common FTP protocols are FTP and Secure FTP. As the name suggests, Secure FTP is sent over a secure, encrypted channel.

I personally use gFTP on Linux as I think it is probably the most intuitive interfaces for an FTP novice. However, if you are using Windows, I would suggest Coffee Cup FTP which you can get for free at http://www.coffeecup.com/free-ftp/ Alternatively, if you are at an Internet Cafe or using a mobile device, I would highly recommend Net2FTP. Again, this is a very intuitive piece of software and works on almost any Internet connected device.

With all FTP programs you are required to provide a few pieces of information. Some of these are standard and some will be specific to you. The first piece of information is the host you are connecting to. I use FTP on a daily basis to post to my blog, and the host for my blog is ftp.supermarketsoap.co.uk. Yours may vary, but if you are using FTP, the host you are transmitting or receiving files from should provide you with the host name. The second piece of information you will need is the port number. This is more or less standard and except for some funky configurations, the standard regular FTP port is 21. The last thing you need is a password for the host. One optional extra piece of information you might need is the directory you want to upload the files to or download the files from. You will need this if you are uploading or downloading to a specific directory.

Once you have connected to the host system, you have a few choices of what to do from here. You can select a directory to upload or download to. For example, if you are uploading to a web server, you might want to select the htdocs directory. You also need to click on the appropriate icon for whether you are uploading or downloading. gFTP makes it very easy by having one arrow pointing at the host's files and one at your files. You can easily select files to put onto the host system, and you can also easily select files to download from the host.

So, what situations would you use FTP in? Well, as I mentioned earlier, I use it for my blog on a daily basis. I also use it to upload ISO files for my Linux project site. In a similar way, I use FTP to download package files for my Linux project from many contributors. You could also use it to upload photos to a personal site, or to upload music from your computer to an NAS device. Conversely, you could use FTP to download music from your NAS, directly to your MP3 player or to download documents from a central server if you are in business.

These are just basic and conventional ways to use FTP. There are also a lot of alternatives to using a regular FTP client. For example there is a service which allows to to upload files from a device via e-mail. In addition to this, several hosting providers offer web based FTP services.

FTP or file transfer protocol can be useful for many things.

Note: Making ftp requests with IE (Microsoft internet explorer) can often be frustrating and rarely works. Be sure to equip yourself with an FTP client before attempting to utilize all the great benefits of FTP

Fast shareware and freeware download..... Trying to download that 50mb game demo and find that even with a broadband connection you are downloading at 56k or the page you are downloading from requires a 4 page signup feature that you don't have time for. Try this... make a note of the file name you are trying to download then search for it on one of the FTP search engines. Test several of the file links until you find that screaming download speed you expect.

FTP to your webpage..... FTP is the most widely used form of file transfer used to upload WebPages to the internet. If you are a webmaster or a just creating your first webpage, an ftp client will most certainly be in your web authoring toolset.

Linux RPM and ISO files...... Linux ISO (cd image files) as well as RPMs (Linux packages) can be found also. If you are a newbie at Linux and want to download a CD image then try these search terms.

Suse iso 

Mandrake iso

Redhat iso