ftp archive

1 definition found

ftp archive - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  archive site
  FTP archive
  
     <networking> (Or "FTP site", "FTP archive") An Internet
     host where program source, documents, e-mail or news
     messages are stored for public access via anonymous FTP,
     Gopher, World-Wide Web or other document distribution
     system.  There may be several archive sites for e.g. a
     Usenet newsgroup though one may be recognised as the main
     one.
  
     FTP servers were common on the Internet for many years before
     the World-Wide Web (WWW) was invented and are still used in
     preference to web servers for serving large files such as
     software distributions.  This is because FTP is more efficient
     than HTTP, the protocol of the WWW.  Many sites therefore
     run both HTTP and FTP servers.
  
     [Is FTP more efficient?  How much more?]
  
     Some well-known archive sites include Imperial College, UK (ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/)
     , UUNET, USA	(ftp://ftp.uu.net/).
  
     See also archie, GNU archive site, mirror.
  
     (1998-07-02)