File transfers were the next challenge. For a couple of years, a half-dozen researchers had been trying to arrive at an acceptable file-transfer protocol, or FTP. The file-transfer protocol specified the formatting for data files traded over the network. Transferring files was something of a life force for the network. File transfers were the digital equivalent of breathing—data inhale, data exhale, ad infinitum. FTP made it possible to share files between machines. Moving files might seem simple, but the differences between machines made it anything but. FTP was the first application to
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