Plain Vanilla File Transfer Protocol

Quick and dirty notes on using FTP from the Windows "run" or "command.com" or Mac OS X "terminal" windows. While there are much fancier FTP programs, they may not always be available on a machine you find you must use.

You can always run the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) from the "run" or "command line" on a PC, or from within a terminal session in Linux or Mac OS X. Here are some useful commands for this "plain vanilla" version of FTP.

ftp remote_machine_name (opens a session)
pwd (tells you the present working directory on the remote machine)
cd folder_name (changes directories on the remote machine)
lcd folder_name (changes directories on your local machine)
dir (lists files in the present working directory on the remote machine)
put filename (copies a local file to the remote machine)
mput * (copies all files in the local folder to the remote machine)
get filename (copies a remote file to your local machine)
mget * (copies all files in the remote folder to your local machine)
prompt (toggles between having FTP ask you to confirm mgets and mputs, and just doing them. Turn off prompting with caution!)
bye (closes a session)

Possible uses of mput and mget: "mput something*htm* " would put any file beginning with the leading literal string "something" and having the trailing literal "html" or "htm". You can use the * wildcard anywhere in the filename as desired. This would copy a whole series of html documents very quickly to the server.

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) was based on FTP. When you initiate an HTTP session, your local machine contacts the remote machine named in the Universal Resource Locator (URL) and requests that it send you a file named "something.html". That file contains plain text, marked up with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). On the remote machine, a piece of software called a Web Server sends your machine a copy of the html file, plus copies of any picture or sound or movie files which should accompany it. Your browser (Netscape, Explorer, Mozilla, etc.) then assembles a "page" using the html file as the basis, and inserting the pictures etc. in the right places. The pictures need not be on the same computer as the text.

The beauty of the Web is that it depends upon nothing more than the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, Hypertext Markup Language, and the URL. Any URL can point to any file on any computer anywhere on the Internet. There is nothing more to the Web.