Web Technologies - Old Questions

9.  What is FTP?

File transfer protocol (FTP) is a set of rules that computers follow for the transferring of files from one system to another over the internet. It is mainly used for transferring the web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as a server for other computers on the internet. It is also used for downloading the files to computer from other servers.

When a user wishes to engage in File transfer, FTP sets up a TCP connection to the target system for the exchange of control messages. These allow used ID and password to be transmitted and allow the user to specify the file and file action desired. Once file transfer is approved, a second TCP connection is set up for data transfer. The file is transferred over the data connection, without the overhead of headers, or control information at the application level. When the transfer is complete, the control connection is used to signal the completion and to accept new file transfer commands.

Fig: Basic model of FTP