What Does FTP Stand For?

FTP is an acronym for "File Transfer Protocol". In simple terms, it's a standard of ways to do things that allows different types of computers and those using different operating systems to send files to each other over the internet.

Before FTP, computer users had to use relatively complex techniques in order to transfer files from one system to another. Different computers and operating systems were not designed to work together. If you wanted to transfer a file, you had to tell each computer how to work with the other one using command line codes. This severly limited file sharing to the very computer literate only.

The ftp protocol was first offered to ARPANET users in 1971 (read more about ARPANET in our article, "Who created the Internet?"). While it did greatly improve the ability to transfer files, it was still not very intuitive, requiring some technical knowledge in its use. By 1973, many changes to the protocol took place and it became much easier to use.

Further improvements have been made since then and, today, FTP can be used to transfer files between computers by simply selecting the file on one computers hard drive, selecting the destination folder on the other computers hard drive, and clicking a transfer button!

The development of links on the internets made this transfer even more available those with little or no technical knowledge of computers. When you click on a link, your web browser uses FTP to transfer the file to your computer with no additional action needed by you!

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