FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is an Internet protocol that allows users to exchange files, programs, etc. over the Internet and uploads them to a Web server or downloads them to their personal computer. Here at 4Freebies.info we have number of the Web's best freeware FTP programs. All of them are ideal for finding software from remote computers and equally as useful for Webmasters, who need to upload files.

We refer to computers configured to accept FTP requests as FTP servers. These servers store a tremendous amount of information, and it is available to anyone on the Internet using FTP. In an FTP client/server connection, the user's computer is called the client or local computer. The FTP server is called the host or remote computer. Downloading refers to transferring files from the FTP server to the client computer. Uploading refers to transferring files to the FTP server from the client computer.

One of the primary design goals of FTP was to hide the details of the file system from users. Thus, users do not need to be concerned with whether their files are on Windows, Unix, Linux or any other system. All they need to be concerned with is the business of moving around and transferring data.

FTP is designed in such a way that it uses TWO connections between the FTP client and the FT server. One connection is used to communicate to the web server using standard Telnet commands. The other is used to transfer data.

This means that FTP is fast and efficient, since it can send extremely large amounts of data and still receive commands, handle aborts and do error correction. Web servers do not have this luxury, since they must wait for sends and receives to cease.