What is FTP?
What about viruses?
How do I use FTP?
Using a stand-alone FTP program

What is FTP?

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is the most popular way of transferring files over the Internet. You use FTP to download, that is, transfer onto your own computer files which have been made available by people or organisations on the Internet, or upload, that is, transfer files from your computer to another computer.

You will most commonly use FTP when downloading software from the Internet, in particular, shareware. Shareware is a term for software that people have chosen to distribute either freely, on an honour system for payment, or on a temporary use basis pending payment. In addition, some manufacturers make available updates to their commercially released software via the Internet. You can use FTP to download these updates. You will not always have to open the FTP program to use FTP. Links can be added to Web pages which, instead of taking you to another page, use the FTP protocol to download a onto your disk.

What about viruses?

You should be cautious about downloading files from sites whose security you are not certain of (potentially any site). We recommend that you install and use a dependable anti-virus application. See the section on Viruses for more information.

How do I use FTP?

Click on your operating system for more guidance.

Windows 95/98
Macintosh

Using a stand-alone FTP program

Graphical FTP programs (which operate like the Windows Explorer) can be downloaded from the internet. These programs include:

Cute FTP (PC)
WS FTP (PC)
Anarchie (Macintosh)
Fetch (Macintosh)

The Help sections of these programs will take you through the procedures for using FTP to download or upload files. Many FTP sites are said to use 'Anonymous FTP'. What this means is that, if prompted for a Username and Password, you can enter 'Anonymous' as the Username, and your e-mail address as the Password.