<article id="ftp">
<title
>&FTP;</title>
<articleinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author
>&Lauri.Watts; &Lauri.Watts.mail;</author>
<othercredit role="translator"
><firstname
>Malcolm</firstname
><surname
>Hunter</surname
><affiliation
><address
><email
>malcolm.hunter@gmx.co.uk</email
></address
></affiliation
><contrib
>Conversion to British English</contrib
></othercredit
> 
</authorgroup>
</articleinfo>

<para
>&FTP; is the Internet service used to transfer a data file from the disk of one computer to the disk of another, regardless of the operating system type. </para>

<para
>Similar to other Internet applications, &FTP; uses the client-server approach &mdash; a user invokes an &FTP; program on the computer, instructs it to contact a remote computer, and then requests the transfer of one or more files. The local &FTP; program becomes a client that uses <acronym
>TCP</acronym
> to contact an &FTP; server program on the remote computer. Each time the user requests a file transfer, the client and the server programs cooperate to send a copy of the data across the Internet. </para>

<para
>&FTP; servers which allow <quote
>anonymous &FTP;</quote
> permit any user, not only users with accounts on the host, to browse the <quote
>ftp</quote
> archives and download files. Some &FTP; servers are configured to allow users to upload files. </para>

<para
>&FTP; is commonly used to retrieve information and obtain software stored in files at &FTP; archive sites throughout the world. </para>


<para
>Source: Paraphrased from <ulink url="http://tlc.nlm.nih.gov/resources/tutorials/internetdistlrn/ftpdef.htm"
> http://tlc.nlm.nih.gov/resources/tutorials/internetdistlrn/ftpdef.htm</ulink
> </para>

<para
>See the manual: <ulink url="man:/ftp"
>ftp</ulink
>.</para>

</article>