isr.co.ro : glossary Anonymous FTP (anon FTP) A service for obtaining files over the Internet that allows requesters to log in as "anonymous" (or occasionally with no name at all), rather than first establishing an account on the sending system. Before the arrival of the gopher system and then the World Wide Web in the mid 1990s, this was the predominant method for retrieving files over the Net, and it's still supported as an alternative access method through most Web browsers, marked by addresses starting "ftp://" rather than the Web's standard "http://." These days most publicly-accessible FTP systems require you to provide your e-mail address as the password--making it somewhat less than anonymous after all.