OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual

FTP

FTP (file transfer protocol) sites store pieces of software that can be accessed from the Internet. If you’ve heard of FTP at all, it was probably under one of two circumstances—either you’ve downloaded software from an Internet FTP site, or you’ve created and maintained your own Web site.

Uploading and Downloading from FTP Sites

Hooking into an FTP site generally requires an FTP client program that runs on the kind of computer you use (Mac, Windows, or whatever). On OS X, popular FTP client programs include the shareware programs Transmit, Fetch, Interarchy, and Captain FTP, and the free RBrowser (which is available from the “Missing CD” page at www.missingmanuals.com).

Using these programs, Web designers, for example, can view a list of all the text and graphics documents, sitting there on an Internet-connected computer somewhere, that make up their Web pages. The effect is shown in Figure 21-1.

UP TO SPEED: The IP Address Mess: Port Forwarding

There are so many ways to connect to your Mac from another computer. You can use SSH, file sharing, screen sharing, and so on. They’re easy to use—when you want to connect across your home or office network.

When you want to connect from across the Internet, though, things get complicated fast.

In that case, you need to know your home Mac’s IP address. (IP stands for Internet Protocol.) An IP address is always made up of four numbers separated by periods, like 192.168.1.104. Every computer on earth that’s directly connected to the Internet ...