FTP is the standard mechanism provided by the internet for copying a file from one host to another. Transferring files from one computer to another is one of the most common tasks expected from a networking or internetworking environment.

Although transferring files from one system to another seems simple & straight forward, some problems must be dealt with first. For example, two systems may have different ways to represent text & data. Two systems may have different directory structures. All these problems have been solved by FTP in a very simple & elegant approach.