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An anonymous FTP would generally mean that a guest is allowed to use FTP (or File Transfer Protocol) for accessing your website without any username or password to be entered. This is a useful technique, especially if your website has procured any file from its visitors, such as articles or image libraries. A visitor can use the FTP program of his choice for the uploading of files onto a public area of your site.

Access to anonymous FTP is usually forbidden to high-level web hosting packages because of security features. Security is a vital aspect for it provides a way through which anybody can gain write access to the web server, with due care so that anonymous FTP does not cause any problems. You must keep an eye and monitor all kinds of files being uploaded on your website with the help of anonymous FTP. This is because otherwise the liability for illegal material will be on you.

Very occasionally would an average website would require access to anonymous FTP. Therefore, you need not worry about the inclusion of this feature in your web hosting plan, as offered by the host.

There are basically two options to having access to your ‘public_ftp’ folder through anonymous FTP access, viz. ftp://ftp.yourdomain.com, and ftp://ftp.yourdomain.com/incoming. While the former allows anonymous access to viewing, downloading and deleting files from your ‘public_ftp’ folder, the latter allows anonymous access to viewing, uploading, downloading and deleting files from your ‘public_ftp/incoming’ folder.

Remember, it is not safe enough to enable Anonymous FTP, as it allows ‘ANYONE’ the access to the restricted area of your website, and hence your used bandwidth and disk space are at stake. However, if you wish to enable it, first click the ‘FTP Manager’ button on the home page and then on the Anonymous FTP Controls link. You will find the tick boxes for the two options available (as stated above). Tick on both the boxes to enable uploads, and then click the ‘Save Settings’ button.
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