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File Transfer Protocol

FTP is a simple way to transfer files between two computers using the internet. Similar to the web, FTP is another layer which has TCP/IP as its base.

There are two basic ways to set up an FTP server. One method requires a userid and password before it lets you in. The other method is called an anonymous server. That's because it either does not require a userid and password, or the userid is "anonymous" and the password is your email address. Anyone can connect to an anonymous server. Usually anonymous servers will allow you to download files (copy them from the server to your computer) but won't allow you to upload files (copy them from your computer to the server). If all you want to do is download files from an anonymous server, you can use your web browser. Most web browsers can handle anonymous FTP connections in addition to the web protocol (HTTP). If you want the capability of uploading files to an FTP server, you will need to have an FTP client. An FTP client is just a piece of software you load on your computer that will provide you with an FTP connection. For example, Windows95 comes with a very basic but cryptic FTP client built-in. To use it, open a DOS window and type:

          ftp [servername]

Just replace the "[servername]" with the name of the server you want to connect to. For example, if you wanted to connect to Microsoft's anonymous FTP server, type:

          ftp ftp.microsoft.com

Most internet service providers will provide you with a shareware version of a graphical FTP client. These are much easier to use than the command line versions (such as the one that comes with Windows 95). If you would like to use FTP, call your internet service provider and ask them for a graphical FTP client.

If you are looking for an FTP client for Windows 3.x, Windows 95, or Windows NT you could try WS_FTP.

I do not use a Mac, so I don't know anything about Mac software. However, I did a brief search and came up with a Mac FTP client that looks ok. It is called Fetch. I have heard that the file type auto detection does not work very well, so you may have to specifically tell Fetch whether the file is ASCII (plain text) or binary.

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