Sunday, March 21 2010 @ 06:00 PM EST Contributed by: sde
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a popular and time-honored method of transferring files to and from a remote network site. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections between the client and server applications. The FTP client connects to the FTP server, and enables the user to send and retrieves files from that server.
FTP is one of many different file transfer protocols that are used. Other examples include the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), BitTorrent, the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), and Secure Copy (SCP).
In recent years, FTP's popularity for general downloading files has declined. Linux distributions and software are now often downloaded by using direct downloads using a web browser, by BitTorrent, metalink, or by using a download utility such as Jigdo. FTP is often tucked away as a download option even if it is available. Whilst FTP can cause bandwidth problems it nevertheless remains a great way of moving large files.
To provide in insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 7 top quality open source FTP clients. There's a mix of graphical and console based applications included. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for all types of users.
