4 May 2020

Difference between FTP and SMTP

FTP stands for file transfer protocol, It is used to send and retrieve the file to a remote location. While in SMTP is a protocol used for sending and receiving email, although, in most examples, it is only used for sending E-mail while the receiving is done by other protocols like POP and IMA. Here this article gives information about the difference between FTP and SMTP to better understand this topic.


SMTP:

  • SMTP is one of the most popular network services in electronic mail.
  • The TCP/IP protocol that supports electronic mail on the internet is called a simple mail transfer protocol(SMTP).
  • SMTP transfers the message from the sender mail server to the recipient mail servers using TCP connections. 
  • User-based on an E-mail address.
  • SMTP provides service for mail exchange between a user on the same or different computers.
FTP:
  • FTP is a standard mechanism provided by TCP/IP for copying a file from one host to another. 
  • There are two connections: data connection and control connection.
  • FTP differs from client-server applications because is establish two connection between hosts.
  • Data connection uses port 20 for the purpose and control connection use port 21 for purpose.
  • FTP is built on a client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connection between client and server. 
  • In this protocol, one connection is used for data transfer and the other for control information.
  • It is transferred to data reliability and efficiency.

The basic difference between SMTP and FTP are listed below:

  • FTP stands for file transfer protocol, SMTP stands for simple mail transfer protocol.
  • FTP is used for the transfer files while the SMTP is used for E-mail
  • FTP is a stateful protocol, SMTP is a stateless protocol.
  • FTP can be used in the command line while SMTP cannot use the command line.
  • FTP uses TCP port number 20 and 21, while SMTP used port number 25.
  • FTP and SMTP are not really related to each other, so you cannot use one instead of each other. 
  • If you want to download the files, you should use the FTP, if you want to send an e-mail then you should use SMTP.
  • FTP is out of band, SMTP is a band. 
  • Both are connection-oriented services.
  • The data connection is non-persistent in FTP, while the SMTP is persistent in SMTP.

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