Anonymous FTP

Anonymous FTP serves as a means of retrieving public data without having to create an account on the server, thus providing unprotected access to specific information over a network. The remote site decides which types of information are to be made available for general public access. Such types of information are referred to as publicly accessible information. 

When a user logs on to an FTP server using "anonymous" as the user ID, limited access is allowed to the contents on the server, with some operating restrictions. The only operations allowed are:

• Logging on using FTP

• Listing the contents available from a limited set of directories

• Retrieving files from these directories

Using the Internet's File Transfer Protocol (FTP), anonymous FTP is a method for giving users access to files so that they don't need to identify themselves to the server. Using an FTP program or the FTP command interface, the user enters "anonymous" as a user ID. Usually, the password is defaulted or furnished by the FTP server. Anonymous FTP is a common way to get access to a server in order to view or download files that are publicly available.

if someone tells you to use anonymous FTP and gives you the server name, just remember to use the word "anonymous" for your user ID. Usually, you can enter anything as a password