File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) port 20 is a client/server protocol used for transferring files to or exchanging files with a host computer. It may be authenticated with user names and passwords. Anonymous FTP allows users to access files, programs and other data from the Internet without the need for a user ID or password.

Websites are sometimes designed to allow users to use ‘anonymous’ or ‘guest’ as a user ID and an email address for a password. Publicly available flies are often found in a directory called pub and can be easily FTP’d to a user’s computer. FTP is also the Internet standard for moving or transferring files from one computer to another using TCP or IP networks.

File Transfer Protocol is also known as RFC 959.