Question

What is the difference between FTP and TFTP? Explain your rationale. When is it appropriate to use each?

Answer 1

Ok , I will answer this.

First I will try to tabulate the difference between both

FTP	TFTP
stands for : File Transfer Protocol	stands for Trivial File Transfer Protocol
software of FTP is larger than TFTP.	software of TFTP is smaller than FTP
ports : 20, 21	port : 69
services are provided by TCP	services are provided by UDP
higher complexity	lower complexity
There are many commands or messages in FTP.	There are only 5 messages in TFTP.
need authentication for communication.	doesnot need authentication for communication.
generally suited for uploading and downloading of files by remote users.	mainly used for transmission of configurations to and from network devices

Both the protocols are used for transfering the data betweens systems.

FTP is used to transfer file from one host to another. And the port used are 20 and 21. Through the port 21 is the command prompt and the port 20 is used to transfer the data. As it uses the TCP, it will be more secured than the TFTP. In this protocol first a handshaking will be done and then only the data transfer will wroks. FTP is mainly used when transfering the files which are large and the appliction has enough system memory to load.

TFTP is used to send files to and from client and sever. The TFTP is smaller than FTP. but it uses UDP and the security will be less among this protocols. Boot files or configuration files amainly transferred between computers in a local setup using this protocol. Because, for booting pcs and devices that do not have hard disk drives or storage devices , using a low volume of memory it can be readily implemented and can TFTP can be used.