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FTP and File Transfer Protocol Software - What You Need To Know

FTP Product Capabilities FTP software is a program that's used to transfer files from computer to computer. Webmasters use FTP software to upload and manipulate webpages, pictures, and videos of a website from their hard drive onto a password protected server. And they can interact with those remotely hosted files the same way that they would interact with the files on their own computer.

This makes FTP software more of a utility program than an application program because although it allows people to rename, move, copy and delete files on a server, it doesn't allow them to create any. Not in the traditional sense that is... Even if you've never uploaded a website of your own, you may be familiar with the way that FTP software works just from using your own computer. That's because FTP software works a lot like Windows Explorer.

How Does FTP Work?

In Windows Explorer, the files that you work with sit on your own computer. You can click on folders and access the files that sit inside of them. You can open them, delete them, and copy and move them -- and that includes files and their folders. With FTP software, the files that you work with sit on a remote computer. Yet you can click on folders and access the files that sit inside of those remote folders too. If the server that you access through FTP is yours (such as through a web hosting rental), you can open, delete, copy, and move the files that are in those remote folders as well.

You can't however, manipulate the files that belong to someone else's server without permission. In most cases, you're only allowed to manipulate the files on server space that you've rented. In all other cases, you're limited to opening or downloading the files of others. An example of this limitation is exemplified in AOL's FTP site: ftp://ftp.aol.com At this site, you can only open or download AOL's files. You can't delete them -- you can't move them -- and you can't change their permissions. Nor can you upload your own files to the AOL server. In order to do that, you'd need to be an AOL employee and work in AOL's FTP department.

If you poke around this site a little bit, you'll notice that you can't access the contents of some its folders either. That's because AOL blocks access to a few of its folders.

Why Would I Want FTP Software?

You don't need to be a webmaster to enjoy FTP software. Plenty of people use FTP software to download files without having to load up bloated and bulky websites and they like it because it's quicker than navigating the World Wide Web.

If you are a webmaster however, and you don't use FTP software, then you're doing yourself a great disservice by not using this critical software utility. Without FTP software, you would have to upload your website content one file at a time through a web browser and webpage that simulates the real activity of an FTP program. Up until this point, that may have sufficed. But believe us when we say that FTP software makes things ridiculously easy.

Either way, whether you're a natural file-hound or busy webmaster, you'll enjoy how most FTP programs work with your firewall's application gateway. (You do have one, don't you?) In an FTP's passive transfer mode for example, you can establish a connection to a remote server instead of having the remote server establish a connection to your computer.

This means that you can not only reduce data and transmission errors -- you can protect your computer during one of the most vulnerable states that it could ever be in, which is connected to a remote computer. Try FTP Client Pro to start...