When and why did ftp break in some browsers?

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(05-07-2021 02:20 PM)StephenG1CMZ Wrote:  I just read in this thread that ftp no longer works in some browsers.
https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-16883.html

I thought I'd ask about it here to avoid cluttering up that thread.

For what it's worth, it works on:
Iphone's safari browser, and
Firefox on Android's Google Play
(the ftp show a list of zips at least - I've yet to try downloading them).

On Android's Chrome, it hangs or goes slow.

At least it's not just HP Prime emulator functionality that disappears.

But what's gone wrong with ftp, and why?
And if you have to choose an ftp app rather than simply use your browser, how do you choose one that's safe?

FTP like some of the other older TCP/IP protocols like telnet is not being supported anymore because of security concern and are being replaced with more modern encrypted and more secure protocols like sftp and ftps. Telnet is replaced by ssh. Even some of the early encryption protocol are no longer supported. The systems I support have a control processor that has a https interface to access it over ethernet. SOme of these are 15+ years old and the code on the control processor has not been updated in several years which means that the encryption protocols supported by their web server is also old and no longer supported by any current browsers, so our service reps carry around an old "portable" version of firefox to use with these systems.

Paul.