Trivial FTP
Trivial FTP
TFTP: – TFTP is short of Trivial File Transfer Protocol, is a very simple file transfer protocol, with the functionality of a very basic form of FTP; it was first defined in 1980. It is used for transferring files that is simpler to use than the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) but less capable. It is used where user authentication and directory visibility are not required. TFTP uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) rather than the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) which is used by FTP. Like FTP, TFTP uses client and server software to make connections between two devices. From a TFTP client, individual files can be copied (uploaded) to or downloaded from the server. TFTP uses UDP for transporting data. TFTP is used for booting computers and routers, it uses only small amount of memory, it is also used to transfer data between hosts on a network. It is often used by servers to boot diskless workstations, X-terminals, and routers. Since it is so simple, it is easy to implement in a very small amount of memory, TFTP was therefore useful for booting computers such as routers which did not have any data storage devices. It is still used to transfer small files between hosts on a network, such as when a remote window system terminal or any other client boots from a network host or server. It uses UDP port 69 as its transport protocol (unlike FTP which uses TCP port 21). It has no authentication or encryption mechanisms. TFTP provides very little security, and should not be enabled unless it is expressly needed. Due to the lack of security, it is dangerous over the open Internet. It is rarely used by a user. Thus, TFTP is generally only used on private, local networks. It is used to read files from, or write files to, a remote server. It supports three different transfer modes, “ascii”, “octet” (binary) and “mail”, with the first two corresponding to the “ASCII” and “octet” (binary) modes of the FTP protocol; the third is now obsolete and is rarely used. FTP vs. TFTP• FTP provides security through login procedure
• TFTP has no login feature (it does not prompt for user name and password)
• FTP Provides a reliable service through its use of TCP
• TFTP must handle its own retransmissions since it uses UDP
• FTP uses two connections (port 21 is used for the control connection and port 20 for the data connection).
• TFTP uses one connection (stop and wait)
• FTP provides many commands
• TFTP can only read and write files
• original versions of TFTP only allowed transferring files up to 32 megabytes in size (some newer TFTP servers remove this restriction)
• TFTP uses UDP port 69 to establish network connections while FTP uses TCP ports 20 and 21
• Because TFTP is implemented using UDP, it generally works only on local area networks (LANs).
