A protocol is the network method and security scheme RankGear uses to connect to a remote server and transfer files — it defines both how the connection is made and whether the data and credentials travel encrypted.
| Term | Protocol |
|---|---|
| Category | APIs, Reliability and Publishing |
| Also known as | Transfer Protocol |
| Where it appears | Domain tables |
What it means in RankGear
Protocol is the connection setting attached to a domain in RankGear's Domain tables. When RankGear needs to reach a site's server — to publish a file, verify a target, or read a resource — the protocol tells it which transport to speak and which security layer to wrap around it. The choice determines the port, the handshake, and whether the session is authenticated and encrypted or sent in the clear. It is a configuration value, not a measurement: it describes how a connection is established for that domain, not the quality or ranking of the site behind it.
How to interpret it
Read the protocol together with the connection's live status rather than in isolation. A configured protocol that keeps failing usually points to one of two distinct problems, and the fix differs for each. A timeout, a refused connection, or a dropped session tends to be transient or network-side — worth one bounded retry. An authentication rejection, a certificate mismatch, or a wrong-port error is a configuration problem — the credentials or the protocol choice itself need correcting, and retrying will not help. Use the visible diagnostics and a read-only credential test to tell the two apart before changing anything.
| Protocol | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| FTP | Plain file transfer with no encryption — credentials and data travel in the clear. |
| FTPS | FTP wrapped in TLS — the session and login are encrypted. |
| SFTP | File transfer over SSH — a separate, fully encrypted transport. |
| HTTP / HTTPS | Web transport; HTTPS adds TLS for encrypted requests and responses. |
Example
A domain in the Domain tables is set to FTPS on the standard secure port. RankGear runs a read-only credential test, the handshake completes, and a publish job uploads cleanly. Later the same job returns an authorization failure: the account password was rotated on the host. Because that is a configuration error rather than a transient one, RankGear stops instead of hammering the server with repeated login attempts, and the fix is to update the stored credential — not to retry.
Important considerations
- Protocol is a setup value, not a scoring signal. It describes how RankGear connects to a domain and has no bearing on that domain's rankings or visibility.
- Prefer an encrypted protocol (FTPS or SFTP over plain FTP, HTTPS over HTTP) so credentials and file contents are not exposed on the wire.
- Distinguish transient failures (timeouts, refused connections) from configuration failures (bad credentials, wrong port, certificate mismatch); only the former are worth an automatic retry.
- Credential and connection tests should stay read-only where possible, and stored secrets must remain redacted in the interface and in any diagnostics output.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.