As a standard network protocol we all use to upload, download and change files over the Internet, FTP is something we all use, but many people still have questions about. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and usually works in a type of client-server relationship to allow you to easily upload documents to a server or download them.
The way we have interacted with FTP has changed over the years. FTP clients, the programs you use to interact with the server via FTP, were originally interactive command-line tools with a standardized command syntax, but graphical user interfaces have been developed for all modern desktop operating systems in use today.
Setting up a desktop FTP client might vary between programs, however most can be configured by giving the following information.
- Hostname: yourdomain.com or ftp.yourdomain.com
- Username: your account username
- Password: your account password
If you are logging in via a secondary FTP account you have created, be sure to use the full user name format user@yourdomain.com as the user name when you input your login information into the FTP client. Some of my favorite FTP clients out there are:
Now, you can use your Internet browser to access your hosting space via FTP, however I would advise against it. The clients mentioned before and the number of other alternatives out there handle FTP in a much better way than any Internet browser out there.
So to make things as simple as possible, FTP is what allows you to easily transfer files to and from your hosting account very easily via a special program.
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