Everything You Need to Know About File Transfer Protocol

FTP Application

FTP is used in many daily business operations, including business-to-business and peer-to-peer data transfer use cases:

Organizations use FTP to allow employees to share files across different locations and branches.

• Employees use FTP to securely share files with colleagues and external business partners;
• Employees use FTP to securely share files with colleagues and external business partners;
• IT teams use FTP to transfer data back to the disaster recovery (DR) site;
• Webmaster teams use FTP Transfer web pages, web application files, and images to their web server.

How to Transfer Files via FTP?

The file transfer protocol works in a client-server model, where the FTP server and FTP client perform file transfer operations. Configure an FTP server in the network and determine a specific file storage location (folder/system) to become shared storage, which will host the files you want to share. End users will access this file server via FTP to start copying files to their local folder/system.

FTP requires a TCP/IP network to run, and it relies on the use of one or more FTP clients. The FTP client acts as a communication agent to interact with the server and download or upload files. In other words, the FTP client sends a connection to the FTP server. After the FTP server monitors the client's request for uploading or downloading a file, it executes the file transfer operation.

What is the Use of An FTP Client?

Decades ago, FTP clients were just command-line interface (CLI) applications. They now provide an easy-to-use, intuitive interface to facilitate and simplify file transfers. FTP clients are used on desktops, servers, and mobile devices, and they can be used as simple extensions to stand-alone applications, web clients, and web browsers.

Active and Passive FTP Server Connection

The FTP server can support active and passive connections with FTP clients. In an active FTP connection, the client opens a port and listens when the server actively connects to it. In a passive connection, the server opens a port and passively listens, which allows the client to connect to it.

Conclusion

FTP has been around for more than four years, and it has witnessed major changes in encryption standards and file transfer capabilities. This chart records the evolution of FTP and the introduction of hosted file transfers. It provides support for secure protocols (such as FTPS and SFTP) and advanced management functions for secure and controlled file transfers.

The Raysync high-speed transfer protocol is a core technology by Raysync based on the UDP protocol, which can overcome the limitations of traditional networks and hardware, the bandwidth utilization rate is more than 96%, and the transmission speed is 100 times faster than FTP. It can easily meet the safe, fast, and stable transmission requirements of TB-level large files and massive small files.