Some port on your router must be 'forwarded' to an IP address and port on a machine on your network.

FTP needs a separate application unless you want to wrestle with Windows limited FTP support, and it's easier to set up. To summarize: HTTP can work in a web browser but is harder to set up. HTTP also has the same security implications as FTP, and to use HTTPS (secure HTTP) you need to create certificates. ASP and you can install others) With such an application you could browse, download, and upload files through a web browser. You also need to install a layer that supports web applications with your HTTP server such as PHP, Ruby, etc. I won't get into the low-level details/history of HTTP, but to keep it simple, it does not have uploading capability like FTP unless you install an run a web application on the HTTP server that supports that. Filezilla Client does support secure FTP and portable versions do exist. But, Windows in this fashion does not support secure FTP - anyone snooping on say a Wifi network you happen to be on can read your password and any data you transmit. So by using FTP, you could possibly reach your files from any Windows machine without using any software. You can use a special client such as Filezilla Client to do things with an FTP server, but Windows has support for FTP through Windows Explorer, if not with a few idiosyncracies. Here's the difference between HTTP and FTP in a nutshell:įTP natively supports uploading and downloading 'out of the box'. IIS is an HTTP and FTP server that comes with all Server editions of Windows and is installable on at least the 'non-home' editions of Windows.įileZilla Server just does FTP, but supports various secure variations of FTP.Īpache just does HTTP, and is pretty big in the Linux world - it can run on Windows too. You are asking a lot, but I'm in a good mood, so here goes:

Filezilla windows server