Please Whitelist This Site?

I know everyone hates ads. But please understand that I am providing premium content for free that takes hundreds of hours of time to research and write. I don't want to go to a pay-only model like some sites, but when more and more people block ads, I end up working for free. And I have a family to support, just like you. :)

If you like The TCP/IP Guide, please consider the download version. It's priced very economically and you can read all of it in a convenient format without ads.

If you want to use this site for free, I'd be grateful if you could add the site to the whitelist for Adblock. To do so, just open the Adblock menu and select "Disable on tcpipguide.com". Or go to the Tools menu and select "Adblock Plus Preferences...". Then click "Add Filter..." at the bottom, and add this string: "@@||tcpipguide.com^$document". Then just click OK.

Thanks for your understanding!

Sincerely, Charles Kozierok
Author and Publisher, The TCP/IP Guide


NOTE: Using software to mass-download the site degrades the server and is prohibited.
If you want to read The TCP/IP Guide offline, please consider licensing it. Thank you.

The Book is Here... and Now On Sale!

Read offline with no ads or diagram watermarks!
The TCP/IP Guide

Custom Search







Table Of Contents  The TCP/IP Guide
 9  TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols, Services and Applications (OSI Layers 5, 6 and 7)
      9  TCP/IP Key Applications and Application Protocols
           9  TCP/IP File and Message Transfer Applications and Protocols (FTP, TFTP, Electronic Mail, USENET, HTTP/WWW, Gopher)
                9  TCP/IP General File Transfer Protocols (FTP and TFTP)
                     9  Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)

Previous Topic/Section
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
3
Next Page
TFTP General Operation, Connection Establishment and Client/Server Communication
Next Topic/Section

TFTP Overview, History and Standards
(Page 2 of 3)

Comparing FTP and TFTP

Probably the best way of understanding the relationship between TFTP and FTP is to compare it to the relationship between TCP and UDP at the transport layer. UDP is a simplified, “stripped-down” alternative to TCP, used when simplicity is more important than rich functionality. Similarly, TFTP is a greatly simplified version of FTP that allows only basic operations and lacks some of FTP's fancy capabilities, in order to keep its implementation easy (even “trivial”!) and its program size small.

Some of the more significant specific differences between FTP and TFTP:

  • Transport: The comparison to TCP and UDP is apt not only based on the features/simplicity trade-off, but because FTP uses TCP for transport while TFTP uses UDP. Like TFTP, UDP is simple and this makes the two ideal for embedding together as a hardware program set in a network device.

  • Limited Command Set: FTP includes a rich set of commands to allow files to be sent, received, renamed, deleted and so forth. TFTP only allows files to be sent and received.

  • Limited Data Representations: TFTP does not include some of FTP's fancy data representation options; it allows only simple ASCII or binary file transfers.

  • Lack of Authentication: UDP uses no login mechanism or other means of authentication. This is again a simplification, though it means the operators of TFTP servers must severely restrict the files they make available for access. (It is also part of why TFTP specifically does not allow the client to perform “dangerous” file operations such as deletion.)

Due to its limitations, TFTP is a complement to the regular File Transfer Protocol, not a replacement for it. It is used only when its simplicity is important and its lack of features is not. Its most common application is bootstrapping, as described above, though it can be used for other purposes. One specific application that the TFTP standard describes for the protocol is the transport of electronic mail. While the protocol supports this explicitly, TFTP is not generally used today for this purpose.


Previous Topic/Section
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
3
Next Page
TFTP General Operation, Connection Establishment and Client/Server Communication
Next Topic/Section

If you find The TCP/IP Guide useful, please consider making a small Paypal donation to help the site, using one of the buttons below. You can also donate a custom amount using the far right button (not less than $1 please, or PayPal gets most/all of your money!) In lieu of a larger donation, you may wish to consider purchasing a download license of The TCP/IP Guide. Thanks for your support!
Donate $2
Donate $5
Donate $10
Donate $20
Donate $30
Donate: $



Home - Table Of Contents - Contact Us

The TCP/IP Guide (http://www.TCPIPGuide.com)
Version 3.0 - Version Date: September 20, 2005

© Copyright 2001-2005 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved.
Not responsible for any loss resulting from the use of this site.