FTP Hosting for Beginners Lesson 101

Have you ever realized why the Internet is so popular? It is because the Internet provides us with easy and fast access to all types of information and knowledge. It is the perfect platform to share information, gain knowledge, send messages, listen to music, and view graphics.
However, if you face problems in transferring this information, then the very purpose of using the Internet will fail. This is where you need the help of FTP Hosting service.

The FTP Hosting service helps you to transfer files over the Internet irrespective of the length and size of the files. The files to be transferred using FTP Hosting service can come in the form of web pages, media files, image files or text files.

Difference between Transferring Files via Emails and FTP Hosting Service
FTP Hosting service makes use of a safe and sound online file storage system. It is in this storage system that the FTP Hosting service allows you to upload all the files, irrespective of their type and size. Once you have finished uploading all the desired files, the recipient of the respective files can easily download them according to their preferred time.

You may feel that even the email can serve this purpose of transferring files. But, there are size restrictions in an email, and the email services fail to transfer large files. You may face a situation where you need to transfer files of size over 100MB – 300MB. This is when you require the help of FTP Hosting service. Moreover, emails allow you to send files from one person to another. FTP Hosting allows you to store the files in an online secured storage system from where the recipients can easily download their respective files.

How Secured is FTP Hosting?

You will be considered a good candidate for FTP Hosting service if you share large files with a number of vendors and clients. The FTP Hosting service provides you with multiple accounts, with the help of which you can easily upload and download files to and from your vendors and clients. Since this whole process involves handling a number of accounts, FTP Hosting service will also provide you with secured passwords for all the individual accounts, thus preventing one client from viewing files for other clients.
FTP Hosting service is mainly used in various organizations and firms including designer, medical practice, law, art, transcription, engineering firms and other organizations that require secure transfer of heavy files.
FTP Server & FTP Client

FTP in “FTP Hosting” stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is one of the fastest and the most effective ways of transferring large files over the Internet. In order to perform FTP Hosting, you will require two types of computers – FTP Server and FTP Client.

FTP Server – This computer runs the FTP server software. It keeps track of requests by the Client computers for connecting to a file that is uploaded on the online storage system.

FTP Client – This computer runs the FTP client software. It instigates connection to the FTP server. Once the connection is established, the client can download and upload files to and from the server, edit, delete or rename files on the server.

FTP Software
To make sure that the two computers required for FTP Hosting, FTP Server and FTP Client, are working effectively, you will require FTP Software. The software runs on the Server and Client computers and handles the smooth transferring of the files. Almost all the FTP Hosting software are easy to use. All you need to do is - install the application, fill in details of site address, name and related information, and just connect. Once connection has been restored, you can easily upload files from your PC to the site and download the files from the site to the local drive of your computer.
A number of FTP Hosting software are available - both for server and client programs. Some of them are:

WS FTP – as file transfer client software, it is the most popular. With the help of this secure software, you can quickly and easily manage all the digital information. It helps to compress files into .zip format during file transfer. It guarantees security of data with the help of 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys and SSL transfers.

FTP Explorer – this allows you to resume file download even after an interruption. This FTP client software is modeled after Windows Explorer interface.

Cute FTP – this is one of the widely used shareware FTP programs. This FTP Client software is developed by GlobalSCAPE. Their enhanced tools help them to manage complex data.

FTP Hosting costs only a fraction of the cost that you pay for sending files via UPS, Fed-X and various postal services. Moreover, the risk of damage and delay and the associated delivery costs are not there. Usually, you will need to pay only $3.50 every week. However, if you go for a monthly payment, you only need to pay $25.00 every month.