›› Trivial FTP Daemon

The Trivial FTP Daemon (TFTPD) service is an optional service that you may or may not find in your Services Control Panel because TFTPD typically gets installed as a result of installing software that requires the use of TFTPD. Remote Installation Services (RIS) is an example of a service that you would install on your computer and, as a result of that installation, TFTPD would be installed as well. Trivial FTP Daemon, along with Boot Information Negotiation Layer and Single Instance Storage Groveler, is just one of the services that get added to your server when Remote Installation Services are installed. However, it is also possible to install TFTPD on your own.

Overall, Trivial FTP Daemon allows you to transfer files just like File Transfer Protocol (FTP). However, TFTPD is less robust than FTP because TFTPD has less functionality and capability than FTP. TFTPD simply allows you to transfer files from one computer to another on a smaller scale.

Recall that Remote Installation Services uses Trivial FTP Daemon to perform its remote operating system and program installations on client computers. With regard to how TFTPD works with RIS, TFTPD is responsible for initially downloading all the files to the client computer that are required for the operating system installation. In addition, TFTPD also is used to download the Client Installation Wizard and all the client dialog boxes within the wizard.

If you are the average home user, chances are you will never need to install this service. If you need to upload/download files to another computer, then FTP will serve those purposes well because of the increased capabilities and functionality that FTP has. If you are a system administrator that uses RIS, you will need to be familiar with TFTPD since it is automatically installed on the system. If you do have TFTPD installed and you choose to disable it, be aware that Remote Installation Services will not function properly.

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