A key advantage of FTP is that it is platform independent, enabling the transfer of files between different types of computers. Another advantage associated with the use of FTP is the fact that various implementations exist that operate on a range of computers, from DOS PCs to IBM mainframes. This enables FTP to provide a mechanism to exchange files between computers as long as both computer support FTP and can be reached via TCP/IP connection. Concerning the TCP/IP connection, FTP relies on TCP at the transport layer to provide a reliable transmission path, ensuring the arrival of error-free data at its destination.

Because FTP was originally developed as a command-driven application, users had to remember command names and any associated parameter values to effectively use the application. Some of the most commonly used FTP commands are ascii (perform data transfer using ASCII format-default), binary (perform data transfer treating data as binary), bye (terminate the FTP session with the remote server and exit the client FTP program), cd (change the working directory on the remote server), delete (delete a file on the remote server), dir (list the contents of the current directory on the remote server, get (retrieve a specified file from the remote computer and store it on the local computer), mget (retrieve multiple files from a remote computer and store them on the local computer), mput (transfer multiple files from the local computer to the remote computer), put (transfer a specified file from the local computer to the remote computer). To facilitate the use of FTP, programs were developed that hide the necessity to know the FTP commands through the use of a graphical user interface. In today’s standards, FTP has many security weakness. Bouncing attacks, spoof attacks, brute force attacks, packet capture (sniffing), username protection, and port stealing are some of its flaws. Anyone who are able to perform packet capture (sniffing) on the network can be easily read, hence all transmissions like user name and password, commands and data are in clear text. This problem is common to many IP’s specifications (such as SMTP, IMAP, POP, and Telnet) designed prior to the creation of encryption mechanisms such as TLS or SSL. A common solution to this problem is the use of secure TLS-protected versions of the insecure protocols (example FTPS for FTP or TelnetS for Telnet) or selection of a different , more secure protocol that can handle the job such as the SFTP/SCP tool included with the most implementations of the Secure Shell protocol.