networking An interactive service provided by many

Internet hosts allowing any user to transfer documents,

files, programs, and other archived data using File TransferProtocol. The user logs in using the special user name

"ftp" or "anonymous" and his e-mail address as password.

He then has access to a special directory hierarchy containing

the publically accessible files, typically in a subdirectory

called "pub". This is usually a separate area from files used

by local users.