Hour 14. File Transfer and Access Utilities

What You'll Learn in This Hour:

• FTP and TFTP

• RCP

• NFS

• SMP

One of the greatest benefits of TCP/IP is that it provides a very flexible environment in which systems of many different types can communicate. Regardless of what hardware or operating systems are in use, two hosts on a TCP/IP network can talk to one another if they use the same protocols. Usually these hosts need access to special utilities as well.

File access and transfer is usually one of the biggest uses of any network. TCP/IP contains a couple of protocols that are used specifically for file access and transfer. Most operating systems also provide built-in utilities designed to take advantage of these protocols. This hour discusses three classic file transfer utilities: File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), and the Remote Copy (rcp) command. I will also look at how file transfer is integrated into modern operating systems through protocols such as Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB).

At the completion of this hour you will be able to

• Explain the purpose and use of FTP

• Initiate an FTP session and use FTP commands to traverse remote directory structures, transfer files to or from the remote system, and create or remove directories

• Explain the purpose and use of TFTP

• Construct a command to transfer a file using TFTP

• Explain the purpose and use of the rpc command

• Explain the purpose and use of NFS and SMB