FTP (File Transfer Protocol),SFTP and FileZilla Explained

Hello everyone! I’m here again with the network article. I’m going to talk about FTP, SFTP and FileZilla. Anyone willing to study about data communication and file transfer protocol, this is for them.

A protocol is a set of rules which are used to transfer files over the network. let us see what is FTP. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and this is a standard protocol that is used to transfer files between computers and servers over the network. So in a nutshell FTP is the language that computers use to transfer over TCP/IP network.

eg: if someone wants to share the files between more people anywhere in the world. All they would have to upload their files to the FTP server and then other people in the world have to do simply connect that FTP server and download files using FTP protocol.

For the above example. They are using a dedicated server. But they do not necessarily have to set up a dedicated server for FTP. They can use their computers to act like FTP server.

There are a couple of ways to transfer a file using an FTP server.

· Internet browser

· FTP client (FileZilla)

Let us think we want to download some movies from the FTP server. To download them open a standard browser and type the address of the FTP server. Like type the domain of a web site. Especially at the start of the address, we have to use FTP instead of HTTP because we are using FTP protocol.

Eg: ftp.adobe.com

Sometimes FTP server has required a username and password and some servers can use it anonymously. It depends on the owner of the server adding authentication to it.

FileZilla

Another way is using the FTP client to connect the FTP server. There are plenty of clients are available and the most popular one is FileZilla which is open source and can download for free. It provides a graphical user interface and user-friendly than accessing the browser.

download link: https://filezilla-project.org

left side window shows our local pc files and right side shows FTP server’s files. we can easily drag files to the left side and it will be download. FileZilla provides easy approach for FTP shareing.

The main drawback of the FTP is security vulnerability is higher. It is not recommended to share sensitive data. Data will not be encrypted when transmitting and it is sent like plain text.FTP is only used in trustworthy areas. Therefore, usefulness is limited.

SFTP

To avoid these drawbacks, SFTP comes in. it stands for secure file transfer protocol. It is just like FTP besides it has a security layer. Data is encrypted using a secure shell. Data is fully encrypted during the transmission.

FTP and SFTP are both connection-oriented protocols. They both use TCP for file transfer. It is means guaranteed file delivery.

I hope you have learned something about FTP and FileZilla. Thanks for reading and your time. cheers