Using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial

Using Trivial File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Cisco CCNA Exam Tutorial
One of the first things you do when you start studying for the CCNA exam is memorizing a list of port numbers & the protocols that run on those ports. If you are an experienced networker, you know most of the protocols that are mentioned - DNS, DHCP, FTP, SMTP, & so on. But there is one protocol that you might not have experience with, but is actually vital for CCNA exam success & success in working with Cisco routers & switches, & that's TFTP - Trivial File Transfer Protocol.

TFTP is basically FTP's non-secure relative. there's no passwords, no authentication scheme, no nothing! As anybody six times told me, "If i am transferring my files, there is nothing 'trivial' about it."

TFTP is used in the Cisco world to perform IOS upgrades & to save configs to a TFTP Server. Cisco routers can themselves serve as TFTP servers, or you can use a workstation to fill that role.

Great. So you’re thinking, “What the heck do they use TFTP for, anyway?”

Using TFTP in this fashion is a great way to have backup copies of IOS images or router configs right on your laptop. & take it from me, when the day comes that you need those backups, you’ll be glad you did!

If you needed to copy an IOS image to a router, for example, you could do so easily by connecting your computer to the router’s console port (via a rollover cable, right?). Your computer would need to run TFTP server application. there's a few free TFTP server program programs that work well – enter “free tftp server” into Google or your favorite search engine & you’ll see what I mean.

Remember that when using the copy command, you first indicate where you’re copying from, then where you’re copying to:

R1#copy flash tftp

Source filename []? Example

Address or name of remote host []?

When performing such a copy, you’ll need to name the file you’re copying, as well as the IP address of the tool you’re copying to.

Using TFTP to perform IOS upgrades takes a little getting used to, the syntax of the copy command. But knowing that syntax & how to use TFTP will indeed get you one step closer to the CCNA!