File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a network protocol used to transfer files between machines on a TCP/IP network. FTP employs a client-server architecture; the client has an FTP client installed and establishes a connection to an FTP server running on a remote machine. After the connection has been established and the user is successfully authenticated, the data transfer phase can begin. Note that, although FTP does support user authentication, all data is sent in clear text, including usernames and passwords.

Consider the following example:

A user wants to transfer files from Host A to the FTP server. The user will start an FTP client program (in this example, Filezilla), and initiate the connection:

In the example above, the anonymous authentication was used, so the user was not asked to provide the password. The client can now transfer files from and to the FTP server using the graphical interface.