Summary

A number of TCP/IP-based utilities allow the user to transfer files to or from a remote computer or to access files located on the remote computer as if they were local. Of these, the FTP protocol is the most commonly used. It allows a user to connect to a remote system anonymously or to connect using a specific user ID and password. With the proper permissions, the user can use ftp commands to copy files, create or remove directories, and traverse the directory structure on the remote computer.

The TFTP protocol provides basic file-transfer capability using the UDP protocol. TFTP does not require a user login and is rarely used directly by ordinary users. The TFTP protocol is used primarily to boot diskless workstations or upload code to network devices.

The RCP protocol provides an alternative to the FTP protocol and allows the user to copy files between two computers. (You'll learn more about RCP in Hour 15.)

This chapter also discussed a pair of protocols used with modern operating systems to integrate remote file access with the local user environment: NFS, which is primarily used on Unix/Linux networks, and SMB, which provides access to files and other resources for Windows clients.