•  FTP stands for File transfer protocol. 
  • FTP is an application which allows you to transfer files between two different computers over the internet.
  • It is mainly used for transferring the web page files from their creator to the computer that acts as a server for other computers on the internet.
=>FTP has two main function : 

1) File downloading 

2) File uploading 


1) File downloading

  • File downloading is a process of copying a file from remote computer to your computer. 

2) File uploading 

  • File uploading is a process of sending a file from your computer to remote computer .

=>Objectives of FTP:
  • It provides the sharing of files. 
  • It is used to encourage the use of remote computers. 
  • It transfers the data more reliably and efficiently.
Advantages of FTP:

1. Speed: 
  • One of the biggest advantages of FTP is speed. The FTP is one of the fastest way to transfer the files from one computer to another computer. 

2. Efficient: 

  • It is more efficient as we do not need to complete all the operations to get the entire file. 
3. Security: 
  • To access the FTP server, we need to login with the username and password. Therefore, we can say that FTP is more secure. 

4. Back & forth movement: 

  • FTP allows us to transfer the files back and forth. Suppose you are a manager of the company, you send some information to all the employees, and they all send information back on the same server.
Disadvantages of FTP: 

  1. FTP serves two operations, i.e., to send and receive large files on a network. However, the size limit of the file is 2GB that can be sent. It also doesn't allow you to run simultaneous transfers to multiple receivers. 
  2. Passwords and file contents are sent in clear text , so it is a disadvantage. So, it is quite possible that attackers can carry out the brute force attack by trying to guess the FTP password. 
  3. It is not compatible with every system.
FTP commands:

=>Some useful FTP commands available on most systems include: