<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 — 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>