FTP

Many sites allow anonymous ftp access for downloading, with their FTP address being identical to the HTTP address, but with the prefix "FTP" instead of "HTTP." For example, the ftp site for "http://www.microsoft.com" is "ftp.microsoft.com." 

The advantage of FTP is in download time and ease of navigation. If you just want to download a file or maintain a website, FTP is a much easier process, because you get to look right at the same directory information that the person who created the site sees, just like you are looking at folders on your own computer.

Most sites allow "anonymous" access to their ftp folders-- you just sign in as "anonymous" and give an email as a password or nothing at all.  Other sites, like the majority of free webhosting services, Geocities, Homestead, nbci, Angelfire, e.g., require usernames and passwords for access, because those folders belong to individuals or may contain sensitive information.

• The cheapest and often the easiest way to access FTP sites from your computer is to use your browser. When you type an FTP address into the browser, it will ask for a username and password unless anaonymous access is granted. You can right click on files and select "copy to folder," and if you are signed into the site, you can transfer files via drag and drop.

• WS_FTP
  This is a program that allows you to have FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to Internet sites. 

The program is excellent for downloading and maintaining web sites. In the explorer window, you can right click on an HTML file, select "Edit" and the file will open as a temp file in whatever HTML editor you choose. When you close the file, the program automatically updates the remote file. I use HTML-Kit (http://www.chami.com/html-kit/) for most of my web editing, and it has an integrated FTP client. 

When I am moving large groups of files, I prefer WS-FTP.  It is small, cheap, fast and free, the way computers were meant to be.

There are a ton of other clients out there, but this one is the no-frills leader.