The FTPS package is a group of C++ classes that implement FTP over SSL. The package depends on the Secure Sockets package of Rogue Wave SourcePro Net. Basically, the FTPS protocol —also commonly called FTP Secure —is the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) protocol combined with Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) You can do anything with an FTPS connection that you can do with a normal FTP connection, but your information is transmitted through a secure and encrypted connection.

The FTPS package implements the “explicit” mode of the protocol, meaning that the client initially connects using FTP and then issues the AUTH TLS protocol command to switch to a secure connection. Unlike implicit mode —which automatically uses a secure connection —explicit mode allows for more control over FTP connections. For instance, if you don’t expect to be transferring sensitive data, you could encrypt only the command channel containing usernames and passwords for authentication, and not the data channel. This could save valuable system resources, since encryption activities use more bandwidth.

For information about the FTP, SSL/TLS, and FTPS protocols, see the Internet Engineering Task Force RFCs listed in Appendix B.