ftp - how excitement

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network eg. internet.
Essentially, it is a method of transferring files over ant TCP/IP based network. This allows users to use/alter files on other computers on that network, regardless of the operating system.
Using FTP has its advantages:

• It promotes the sharing of files
• It shields users from Variations in file storage systems among different hosts (all data can be accesses o matter what formats are used)
• Data can be transferred reliably and efficiently.
  

It does however have its downfalls and risks too:

• Eavesdroppers can pickup on file contents and passwords as they are sent in clear text, this can be minimised using secure connections such as SSL.
• It is a high latency protocol
• No data integrity check is performed at receivers end - data may be corrupt.
• The original ftp is a relatively insecure method of data trasnfer as there is no method for data encryption. The risks can be minimised using "either SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), or FTPS (FTP over SSL), which adds SSL or TLS encryption to FTP."

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