FTP is file transfer protocol. FTP is the easiest and also the most secure way to transfer files from one server to another.
What is an FTP client : An FTP Client is software that is designed to transfer files back-and-forth between two computers over the Internet. It needs to be installed on your computer and can only be used with a live connection to the Internet. You get a number of free FTP clients that you need to download from net and install on your computer.
FTP Client Interface : FTP client has a very user-friendly interface. It simply involves drag and drop technique of transferring the files between your computer and your website server. The classic FTP Client look is a two-pane design. The pane on the left displays the files on your computer and the pane on the right displays the files on your website server which which you want to start the file transfer process.
Get started with file transfer process : To use an FTP client for file transfer, you need to get connected to your website server. For establishing a connection, you need to enter some basic information regarding the server. The information to be filled in includes:
- Host Name : It can either be the IP address of the server else it is the form ftp.YourSiteName.com
- Username and password : This can be either your control panel username, password. Or if you have an FTP account, you can fill in its username and password.
To hold the transfer process, you can simply select the file on either of the panels and drag and drop to the other pane. But before starting, you need to select the relevant directory in which you want the transferred file to stay. Or you can just highlight the relevant file to be transferred, and click on upload if you want to upload it to the server or click on download if you want to download it from server.
Advantage over online web-based file managers: In case of online web-based file managers, you need to download or upload the files one by one. Since it can be a tedious process but, this is not the cast with FTP clients (software to handle FTP), in which we can select any number of files at one go and start the process of file transfer. Another very important feature that file transfer process through FTP client is that the files that are selected for transfer gets queued. This feature helps in cases when file transfer process gets terminated in middle of the process. So, next time, when you log in to your FTP client, you do not have to restart the process, the transfer process resumes from where it was last interrupted.
Other features of FTP client : The auto re-get or resuming feature, a queuing utility, the scheduling feature, an FTP find utility, a synchronization utility, and for the advanced user, a scripting utility.